“Eat only with your right hand, never with the left.” My friend advised, referring to the injera pancakes used in Ethiopian cuisine to scoop up food. Her advice aimed to spare me the disapproving looks and awkward moment of a cultural lesson learned the hard way. Leaving in just a few days for my trip to Ethiopia, I have been gathering all the travel tips I can get.
I am thrilled be traveling to Ethiopia along with the eight other New Media Fellows selected for the International Reporting Project trip to report on Newborn Health. The International Reporting Project was established to fill the void in reporting on global issues. The IRP fellowship gives U.S. Journalists the opportunity to travel to foreign countries, and share the stories that would not typically be seen in the mainstream media.
We will be reporting on Ethiopia’s development in preventing newborn deaths, a challenge in a country where somewhere around 90% of women live in low resource, rural areas and tend to give birth at home. We will also explore surrounding issues such as maternal and child health, immunizations, nutrition, and access to healthcare. Ethiopia is the second most populated country on the African continent, and is a country comprised of diverse ethnicities. It’s landscapes are varied as well, topography ranges from mountains to jungles, to one of the hottest inhabited regions on earth. We will be visiting remote villages to meet with NGO’s, Frontline Heath care Workers, and mothers to witness first hand the challenges, and the progress towards saving lives in Ethiopia.
Please follow our journey at #EthiopiaNewborns , on Twitter , Facebook & Instagram
I will be reporting from Ethiopia as a fellow with the International Reporting Project (IRP)
