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An interview with Zerihun Gultie, country director of Holt Ethiopia, about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting children and families in Ethiopia — and how sponsors and donors are meeting their most urgent needs. 

A doctor checks the temperature of a baby at the Shinshicho Mother & Child Hospital, which Holt donors helped build several years ago for the people of this impoverished community. To protect frontline workers and patients during the pandemic, Holt sponsors and donors helped provide supplies of masks, sanitizers and other PPE for the hospital.
A doctor checks the temperature of a baby at the Shinshicho Mother & Child Hospital, which Holt donors helped build several years ago for the people of this impoverished community. To protect frontline workers and patients during the pandemic, Holt sponsors and donors helped provide supplies of masks, sanitizers and other PPE for the hospital.

How is the pandemic affecting children and families in Ethiopia?

COVID-19 has been affecting all of us. … March-May was terrifying because we knew that the infrastructure in this country isn’t able to cope with a pandemic like this …Travel was banned to the field. Public gatherings were also restricted. Schools were closed. And the economy was partially shut down. So this has been affecting the socioeconomic livelihood of communities, especially in the places where we work. … People who used to get food from the market were not able to get food. It has affected everyone, especially the poor and those who are living in the rural settings.

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