African Livestock Productivity and Health Advancement (Zoetis ALPHA) initiative has partnered with EthioChicken, one of the leading poultry producing company to open a Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory.
“Poultry diseases of various types are one of the top challenges that most poultry farmers are facing across the country and diagnosing of these diseases was not easy because of shortage of diagnostic facilities in the country,” says Dr. Bitsu Kiflu, Diagnostic Manager at Zoetis A.L.P.H.A. Initiative. “Hence, the need to have more diagnostic service is found to be very crucial as poultry farming is dependent on diagnosing the disease and putting the right measure accordingly. We have partnered with the leading poultry producing company in Ethiopia, EthioChicken to support them with a fully operational diagnostic facility,” added Bitsu.
The laboratory is a full Poultry Serology laboratory which will help to diagnose different disease, decide when to vaccinate and assess how the vaccinations are working and detect the protection status of flocks. This would benefit the local community by providing the exact disease status of their flocks thereby they can treat or put prevention measures on their flocks at the right time. Improving the health status of livestock will improve production and productivity which ultimately help in improving the livelihood of small holder farmer.
“With the help of this diagnostic laboratory, the veterinarians will be able to know the disease they are dealing with and they will have a better understanding on how to treat a specific disease based on the test findings. ALPHA initiative not only provided them with the diagnostic tools, but also offered them a practical training on how to perform different tests in the laboratory and how to do a result interpretation of those tests.
Zoetis ALPHA is an initiative funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The initiative was launched in Uganda and Nigeria in 2017, followed by Ethiopia and Tanzania in 2018. Through this initiative, the foundation had been able to offer veterinarians and farmers with an intensive training on poultry disease prevention and control, disease diagnostics and many more. The initiative partners with local veterinary association, government offices and livestock farmers to positively impact the livestock sector in the country.
USD 200,000 has been allocated for the training of professionals and awareness creation on the poultry industry, while 50,000 dollars was set for the construction of the laboratory.
Private Poultry Diagnostic Laboratory opened in Ethiopia
Cepheus Capital invests in JP Textile
Cepheus Growth Capital Partners (“Cepheus Capital”) announced an investment into JP Textile Holding Company Limited, the majority shareholder in JP Textile Ethiopia PLC, Ethiopia’s leading manufacturer of advanced fabrics and a key supplier within Ethiopia’s growing garment industry.
With this investment, Cepheus Capital will hold a significant minority ownership stake and provide strategic, managerial, and operational support to JP Textile.
JP Textile, based in the Hawassa Industrial Park and is expanding its production capacity to meet growing demand for its fabrics in Ethiopia and internationally. The investment by Cepheus Capital will support the company’s expansion plans and also facilitate operational enhancements in areas such as environmental, social, and governance standards.
The Chairman of JP Textile Holding Company Limited, Yang Nan, said “We are delighted to have Cepheus Capital as our partner in JP Textile, as we work together in strategic cooperation to realize the promising future of the company. Cepheus Capital will provide JP Textile with valuable guidance and support for the company management within Ethiopia.”
Cepheus Capital’s Managing Partners, Kassy Kebede and Berhane Demissie, said in announcing the investment “We are delighted to have entered into partnership with Yang Nan and his excellent team. JP Textile has an important role to play in Ethiopia’s growing garment manufacturing industry and is very much aligned with our goal to support the industrialization of the Ethiopian economy.”
For Cepheus Capital, the deal was led by Tim Hill, Investment Director, who said “JP Textile is uniquely positioned within the Ethiopian garment manufacturing industry as the only local producer of high-quality fabrics. Our partners in the company share Cepheus Capital’s vision of how to improve and expand the company’s operations to capture JP Textile’s significant opportunity for growth.”
Cepheus Capital is a private equity firm that invests in Ethiopia’s most promising businesses and entrepreneurs. Besides providing capital, the firm also delivers management and operational expertise to its portfolio companies and assists them in the adoption of strong environmental, social and governance standards. Cepheus Capital is currently investing from its first fund that is being deployed across the manufacturing, agro-processing and services sectors.
Renowned autism champion, Zemi Yenus, succumbs to COVID-19
Zemi Yenus, a special African Voice who dedicated her life to fight for Ethiopian children with autism and related disorders has passed away on Monday May 11, 2021 late mid night due to COVID 19. Zemi was the founder and director of Nia foundation, which was a joy autism center founded to reduce and support children with autism who were neglected, forgotten and left in the dark. Her foundation now supports and takes care of over 80 children.
Zemi was born and raised in Addis Ababa. She left Ethiopia during the Red Terror, a time of violent political unrest in the late 1970s and went to Italy at age 17. At age 19, she started working for a Refugee Service Agency called UCEI that worked alongside with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. As part of her work, she was in charge of migrant’s entry to the U.S.A. After completing a course in Cosmetology, she worked in several places in California, including in Hollywood and Beverly Hills and established her own beauty salon in Los Angeles.
In 1992, soon after the Military Regime changed, Zemi returned to Ethiopia to make it up for her country by doing everything possible to change situations with a special concern for young girls. On her return to Ethiopia, she opened ‘Niana School of Beauty and Modeling’, the first licensed professional beauty and modeling school in the country.
In the meantime, she was facing enormous challenges because her son was continuously expelled from schools because of his autism. He was viewed as spoiled and undisciplined. She tried several schools for her son, hoping to find one that could meet his needs. Finding no schools equipped to deal with children in the Autism Spectrum Disorder in Ethiopia where many children with Autism were considered cursed and possessed and, were chained and locked away in dark rooms, she had to decide whether to go back to the United States, where such schools existed, or stay in Ethiopia. Through these trying times she learned about other parents’ challenges in raising their children with autism.
Particularly, she found out that mothers were blamed for their children’s’ condition. Determined to end the stigma, exclusion and physical confinement that afflicted autistic youngsters, Zemi decided to stay in Ethiopia and made her life’s purpose to aware the public about autism and to change the lives of parents and children with autism and other Intellectual disorders.
She began autism awareness creation program by including the issue in the modern and traditional beauty services and products exhibitions she organized. When it became clear that creating awareness was not enough by itself, in May 2002 she opened the first autism center, using funds from her Niana School of Beauty and Modeling.
She used to say that one of her best achievement is also the personal and organizational advocacy efforts she exerted that resulted in better inclusion of ‘Autism’ in the government policies, plans and guidelines.
Zemi has been building a new autism center that can accommodate 500 Ethiopian children with autism and related developmental disorders in Ethiopia on 5,000 hectares of land with a capital of 250 million Birr. A world class autism center of excellence for the purpose of conducting operational researches, providing holistic therapies and specialized education for children autism and related disorders was what she envisioned in addition to seeing mothers smiling as opposed of feeling ashamed of their children from the ridicule that society brings forth.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 blocked her from realizing her dream. As learnt from the eulogy read on her funeral ceremony, the director was infected by the Coronavirus and had been treated in one of the COVID Treatment centers in the capital, Addis Ababa.
