Following the requests of the Ethiopian
government and United Nations agencies working on behalf of famine victims,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is today sending a team of two doctors
(under the auspices of MASHAV - the Ministry's Center for International
Cooperation) to the Welo District in northern Ethiopia - one of the regions
which has been badly hit by the famine.
The medical team consists of Dr. Baratz,
the coordinator of MASHAV medical and humanitarian aid, and Professor Michael
Elkan, an expert on infectious diseases and epidemiology at Soroka Hospital.
The aim of the trip is to study the needs of the Ethiopians, and to formulate follow-up programs in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Program (WFP) in the spheres of medicine, treatment of children, treatment of intestinal and infectious diseases, the supply of food and drinking water, and to assist the Ethiopian government in the organization of ongoing relief work.