Identification of risks
Though the Ethiopian people experienced a lot of conflicts and famine, another problem is apparent as they also die of AIDS (Coppola, 2011). The number of women who are infected with HIV/AIDS is high even for those who are in marriage relations (Assefa, Taye, & Yamāh̲barāwi ṭenāt madrak (Ethiopia), 2008, p. 107). The risk is high to get infected for people of different social groups, in different areas, for different genders and age groups. This means that the risk of becoming infected is high and every person should know about the risk and ways the disease is transmitted to prevent it.
As claimed by Massow (2001), the number of officially reported cases of HIV and AIDS in Ethiopia does not really coincide with the actual situation because there are much more people with this diagnosis who do not even know about their problem, symptoms, the ways of transmission.
This disease can be really harmful in terms of people’s health and the economic factors related to it because if people are infected, they may die and the workforce becomes unavailable for this country while people from other countries would not like to work their due to the high mortality rate.
“AIDS-affected households will experience a loss o labour and skills, a reduction in their asset base and changes in household priorities to meet short-term food needs rather than engage in potentially risky medium-term investments” (International Livestock Research Institute, 2008, p. 3).
Besides, the patients in hospitals may come from different areas. As some patients come from far away, from other settlements, and have to wait for hours for the examination rooms to open and the laboratory staff and volunteers as well as health care workers to start examining patients, the examination rooms start their work earlier (Ethiopian Medical Association, 1978, p. 52).
So, it is necessary to inform people about the disease and ways it is transmitted to prevent it and help those who are already infected to live with this disease and not infect their family members. However, there are different risks occurring for the volunteers and people who would like to help. As such, it is necessary to divide the risks and outline the way they should be dealt with.
One of the risks to be dealt with is the workload the health care workers already have outside the project which means that they may be unwilling to take part in the project. The second risk is the cultural and social factors because it is considered inappropriate to tell teenagers about such things as HIV whereas they are at risk as well.
The third risk includes challenging, disrupting relations between men and women. The fourth risk includes religious barriers that can be regarded as cultural though the power of religion if often underestimated, especially for rural areas. Companies participating in the project may refuse to provide condoms at a discount, if any; this means that some charity funds should be considered as a backup plan in case some problems with provision of condoms.
Another risk concerns the people in charge of distributing condoms making a personal profit from them. Besides, health care workers/core group/sex workers may stop their HIV prevention work when not being monitored. In addition, falsification of records by HCW/Core group is also possible.
Dealin with the risks
Monitoring and control are essential for the project and for effective results. So, these are important ways to deal with the risks identified.
Reference List
Assefa, Taye, & Yamāh̲barāwi ṭenāt madrak (Ethiopia), 2008. Digest of Ethiopia’s national policies, strategies and programs. Addis Ababa: African Books Collective.
Coppola, Damon P., 2011. Introduction to international disaster management. 2nd ed. Burlington: Elsevier.
Ethiopian Medical Association, 1978. Ethiopian Medical Journal, 16-17. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Medical Association.
International Livestock Research Institute, 2008. Dynamics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in value chain development in rural Ethiopia and responses through market-led agricultural initiatives. Addis Ababa: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD).
Massow, Fra Von, 2001. Access to health and education services in Ethiopia: supply, demand, and government policy. Oxford: Oxfam.