Creating Awareness About Epilepsy
CareEpilepsy Ethiopia was at Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa from 5-7th May 2016 creating awareness about Epilepsy and promoting the upcoming National Epilepsy Awareness week event.
CareEpilepsy Ethiopia was launched in Addis Ababa on the 15th October 2015. It was an opportunity to express its mission, vision and objective. We raised awareness about epilepsy and the service need in Ethiopia was highlighted.
Epilepsy recovery position was demonstrated by DESTINO Dance Company, which is an Ethiopian venture born to support underprivileged young people in developing their inner-potential through dance.
The brains of people with epilepsy appear to react to music differently from the brains of those who do not have the disorder, a finding that could lead to new therapies to prevent seizures, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association’s 123rd Annual Convention.
“We believe that music could potentially be used as an intervention to help people with epilepsy,” said Christine Charyton, PhD, adjunct assistant professor and visiting assistant professor of neurology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who presented the research.
The full press release can be found here:
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/music-epilepsy.aspx
This is a short, English-language synopsis of some of the Amharic coverage.
Shegitu magazine, (meaning ‘Pretty’), used the launch as it’s cover story, asking the question “Are we ready to learn?”
The lead article is based on an interview with our founder, Enat Yewnetu, and dealt with four areas:
The caption to the photo on second page states: You have choices in life – one is to let
depression take over and allow your life to lose purpose – another is to be strong and to have a positive attitude, despite having to live with epilepsy. I chose the latter.
Title: Epilepsy, known in Ethiopia as the “Falling Down Sickness”.
The article explains that there are about one million* epileptics in Ethiopia, of whom 85% get no medical treatment. This is the reason for CareEpilepsy, which launched on 12 October 2015 at the Jupiter Hotel, explaining to the country how CareEpilepsy was born and what is its vision and mission. It then reported on the launch of CareEpilepsy, which consisted of presentations, among others, by:
Enat was interviewed after the launch and was asked why she gave up a good career to do this. “Because my good treatment in England gives me an almost normal life and I want the same for Ethiopian epileptics.”
Our aim is to establish and enhance good quality treatment in Ethiopia and raise awareness, minimize stigma and enable epileptics to be productive members of society, supporting themselves and their families.
*Estimates of the number vary between 1 and almost 5 million, depending on the sources used.