Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, Face-Faw has helped with St Mary's School in Addis Ababa, and with the work of the Missionaries of Charity [nuns of Mother Theresa]. James Jeffrey (C97) ran in the New York Marathon for Face-Faw and St Mary’s School, raising through £1026 plus tax reclaimed £255.54 [total 31 January 2008, when this closed - £1311.54]. We are hoping to help more.
Laura Criddle (A07) worked for a few weeks in Ethiopia on a project arranged through Face-Faw. The following are some extracts from her Journal.
In a ward of one of the houses of the Order of the Missionary of Charity near Addis Abada in Ethiopia, on 12 July 2007, Laura wrote of her experience of death: “Today has been a bit of a landmark, I suppose, as it was the first time that I have been in a room when somebody died. I was feeding my lovely ‘very good’ lady in the AIDS room, and suddenly Nayley signalled to me that the lady at the back of the room had just died. What was more shocking than the fact that a lady had just died and a life had been extinguished, was the rapidity and efficiency of the way the nurses dealt with the situation. In no more than 10 minutes, the lady had died, was stripped, the bedclothes changed and a new patient brought in and tucked up in bed” On 28 July 2007, she writes of treating a woman in such pain that “she screamed and screamed”, denied much morphine because of the shortage – “if the morphine ran out before she died, then the pain would be such a shock that her body would completely shut down and her death would be more horrific”.
Laura writes further: “I was the last person to change her bandages and she died the following day. But I kept thinking of the way she was on the last day, she seemed so much more at peace – maybe it was final acceptance, rather than morphine” Of another woman called Zenit, Laura writes of her fear: she was scared to take the test and find out whether or not she was HIV+” – the test was negative - but, says Laura, she had lost so much weight and “I’m now uncertain as to whether or not she’ll make it”. Laura sees her every day, rubbing vaseline and moisturiser all over her. On the final day, Zenit took Laura’a hand and said “that she loved me”. Zenit died at lunchtime on 30 July 2007.
Friendship and Aid to Central and Eastern Europe - Friendship and Aid for the World (Face-Faw) represents Ampleforth’s concern for the needs of the world.
Face-Faw can receive donations to help with its aid work on www.justgiving.com/ampleforthabbey/donate