Project Harar

Project Harar, charityregistered in the UK and Ethiopia works in Ethiopia to help children affected by cleft lip and palate and complex facial disfigurements. Since 2001 , nearly 10,000 children and young patients living in poverty and isolation were seen by a doctor through Project Harar.

Project Harar Ethiopia
Formation2001
TypeCharitable organization
PurposeHealth outreach
HeadquartersLondon and Harar, Ethiopia
Region served
Ethiopia
Founder/Director
Jonathan Crown
Websitewww.projectharar.org

Project Harar works in collaboration with Ethiopian and foreign specialists plastic, oral and maxillofacial surgeons to treat children affected by a variety of conditions, to give them normal facial function.

History

Project Harar was founded after Jonathan Crown, a London-based Chartered Accountant and businessman on a photography vacation, encountered two young boys with facial disfigurements, Fhami and Jemal, begging in the town of Harar, eastern Ethiopia, in 2001. Moved to do something to help, Jonathan Crown spent months organising the trip that would bring Fhami and Jemal to The Gambia, where they received highly complex surgery on board of the M/V Anastasis operated by the charity Mercy Ships.[1]

In 2006, the English actor John Hurt became Project Harar's first patron.

In autumn 2007, Project Harar was featured in two BBC World Service programmes on noma and the treatment of patients from remote regions. In November 2007, a documentary film made by BBC Inside Out featured a group of severely affected patients from the Hararghe and Somali regions of Ethiopia who underwent treatment by a team of UK medical volunteers, organised by the noma charity Facing Africa.[2]

Operation

Project Harar is a health outreach charity functioning as a bridge between those who could benefit from facial reconstructive surgery and the centralised Ethiopian health services. Its Ethiopian staff work in remote rural areas, liaising closely with local health administrators and extension workers, to locate and support children with facial disfigurements, who often face stigma and social exclusion.[3]

Project Harar operates mainly in the Oromia Region, including the zones of Misraq (East) Hararghe and Mirab (West) Hararghe which take in the towns of Harar and Asebe Teferi, Amhara, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regions (SNNPR)South West Ethiopia Region (SWEPR) and Sidama. The charity has also covered parts of the Somali Region, including Jijiga, and the chartered city of Dire Dawa.


Conditions treated

Project Harar helps children and other individuals living with a treatable facial disfigurement, which can be caused by a number of conditions. These include:

References
  1. Sarah Harrison, "Accountant gives hope to African 'Boy Davids'", Ham & High Series. 10 May 2002
  2. BBC. "Facial surgery in Ethiopia". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  3. Sarah Driver-Jowitt, "Boundaries of care", Public Service Review: International Development 5 Online, PSCA 2007. Available at http://www.publicservice.co.uk/article.asp?publication=International%20Development&id=247&content_name=Overview&article=7387 (retrieved 9/3/2009)
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