Project HOPE, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization (NGO), is providing more than 56,000 N95 protective masks to Ethiopia to support COVID-19 response efforts. Project HOPE Country Representative Dawit Abraham presented the personal protective equipment to Minister of Health Dr. Lia Tadesse at a small handover ceremony, which will be used to protect health workers in handling COVID-19 cases in government health facilities and communities across the country. 

Purchase, logistics and shipment costs for the protective masks were made possible through Project HOPE corporate funding and donations from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Project HOPE has been responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic since early February 2020. The organization has been operating in China – including the Wuhan province, where the disease was first reported – and is building upon lessons learned from fighting the outbreak there to inform its missions around the world.  

Ethiopia is one of Project HOPE’s priority countries in its global response to COVID-19. In addition to equipment donations, Project HOPE is also conducting virtual training for health care workers on COVID-19 in partnership with Brown University.