With escalating internal conflicts impacting Ethiopia, ensuring access to critical healthcare resources has become an immense challenge. Yet, our Ethiopian partner, Keamed, demonstrates unwavering commitment by maintaining oxygen supply to surrounding communities while also ensuring the safety of the team. Conflict forced oxygen plant shutdowns in both Debre Berhan and Debre Markos for some days, but the teams adapted heroically. While they have faced road closures, state emergencies, and even active gunfire, Keamed’s dedicated team is navigating a volatile landscape to deliver life-saving oxygen cylinders. They strategize alternative routes, establish temporary networks, and adapt their operations to navigate evolving realities. There’s still a lack of clarity on the outcome of the conflict going forward, but we are continuing to work closely with Keamed to ensure that we have strong risk mitigation plans in place.
As our hospital is the largest in the area, we admitted people with chronic diseases, pregnant women and casualties of the war. Throughout this challenging time, we never ran out of oxygen because Keamed Oxygen supplied us every day.
Head of DebreMarkos Hospital
We received oxygen because Keamed went above and beyond, delivering cylinders to us. They took longer routes to ensure timely deliveries and provided backups for emergencies.
DebreBerhan Facility