The
Amaro people, now numbering about two hundred thousand, are said to have come
from the Christian north, in the Amhara region around Gonder many years ago;
and Asnakech is very interested in improving the living conditions for the
people of Amaro district where she was brought up. Through the help of Soldaridad and USAID,
training, awareness about HIV AIDS and other health matters have been brought
to a large group of coffee farmers and their households in Amaro.
Although
nationally great improvements in health have been achieved, health care remains
a problem as well as many other districts in rural Ethiopia. Asnakech’s
enduring ambition for Amaro is that a hospital can be established there, especially
to help mothers-to-be and their young children. Many have to travel to the
large town of Dilla more than 116 kilometers away. Often these women never
return because birth incidents occur along the way; this indeed happened to her
elder sister Zawditu and her baby.