Partners in the Horn of Africa Directors John Baigent and David Cosco visited the Edmonton office in August 2006 along with two nurses from Ethiopia, Woinshet and her sister Diseeta. Both Brian Adeney and Katherine Johnston spent time with Woinshet in Ethiopia who works at a local orphanage in Addis Ababa. This was her first time in North America.

Katherine Johnston has recently returned to Canada after spending 14 days in Ethiopia. In addition to visiting EBA's spring protection projects in the Wollo woreda (province) of Ethiopia, Katherine spent five days taking in some of the "historic tour" in the ancient cities of Gondar and Axum. Some highlights from the trip include the rock-hewn tombs of Axum, the famous King Ezana stele and the Royal Enclosure of Gondar (also known as "the Camelot" of Ethiopia).

Katherine Johnson from the Whitehorse office is just getting ready to go to Ethiopia. She leaves on Sunday, May 14. She will meet John Baigent a Director from Partners in Addis Ababa. They will travel to all the EBA/Partner project sites and will also visit some of Partners other projects including the construction of foot bridges and to HIV orphanages.

We received over 20 emails from employees who wanted to be considered for participation in the project by traveling to Ethiopia for the spring construction stage. We have so many incredible people at EBA with such a wide variety of experience that it was very difficult to make a selection.All the responses had one thing in common and that was that they all fully supported the 40th Anniversary Ethiopia Project and they wanted to get personally involved to help people in Ethiopia.

The project that EBA is providing technical and financial support to on behalf of Partners is the protection of springs (seepage areas) that are used for water supply. Currently, these sites are used concurrently by people for drinking/washing water and by livestock resulting in potential cross-contamination and disease. The dry season lasts from November to May and offers the best opportunity to evaluate permanent springs.

Brian Adeney recently returned to Canada after spending 17 days in Ethiopia (and a little whale watching in London on the way back). The mission was to meet the project team and inspect candidate spring protection sites with the Ethiopian engineer for the project, Tesfaye. (Most Ethiopians only go by their first name.) Brian also met with representatives from "Partners in the Horn of Africa" (Partners), John Baigent and David Cosco, and other Ethiopian support staff.

Most of you will have seen the 40th Anniversary announcement by now. The original announcement, this update, and all future updates will be available through the link on the right-hand side of the myEBA page titled "EBA 40th Anniversary Project: Ethiopia".We have been overwhelmed by the positive responses to this initiative.