Siloam Ethiopia will host a fundraising meal from noon to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, at Ethiopian Evangelical Church, 175 Church St., Landisville. Members of the nonprofit organization will serve various traditional Ethiopian meals for a set price, and patrons may choose from four dishes: doro wat, a spicy chicken stew; misir wat, containing spiced red lentils; atakilt wat, a cabbage and potato stew; and kik alicha, a stew with split peas. Each meal will include injera, an Ethiopian flatbread. To reserve a meal for pickup, contact Siloam Ethiopia founder Wegayhu Ketema at 717-669-0930 or wmketema@gmail.com. Orders may be placed until the day of the fundraiser.

The proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit Siloam Ethiopia's ongoing efforts to aid the people of Harar in Ethiopia, where the organization operates a medical clinic. For the last nine years, volunteers from Siloam Ethiopia and local churches have taken regular mission trips to assist residents of Harar by providing medical services at the clinic and completing projects at local orphanages. The funds raised by Siloam Ethiopia's community meal help cover the clinic's general expenses, including rent and utility expenses for the facility and staff member wages. The proceeds are also used to purchase medications and eyeglasses for the clinic's patients. Residents of Harar often experience shortages of medical supplies due to the local government's tendency to confiscate any shipments that arrive.

Siloam Ethiopia's volunteers took their most recent trip to Harar in January 2023. The group comprised Ketema and Community Fellowship Church members Kari Oftedal, Jason Craig, Faith Higley and Patrick Engle. In addition to providing volunteers for mission trips, Community Fellowship Church has been financially supporting Siloam Ethiopia's projects in Harar for the last four years.

Oftedal, who works as a doctor at Lancaster General Health, spent the majority of her time in Harar seeing nearly 40 patients daily at the free medical clinic. Ketema and the other volunteers helped to refurbish the storage room at a local girls' orphanage, and they taught the girls how to fashion reusable sanitary pads to replace disposable pads, which are often too expensive for many of the girls to afford.

While working at the orphanage during the last trip, Ketema became ill due to the mold that had accumulated in the storage room. After several months of treatment, Ketema has fully recovered, but she was unable to take another trip in 2023. Ketema said she plans to visit Harar in September with her husband, Demeke Getahun, to continue Siloam Ethiopia's work. Ketema invites members of the community and local doctors who wish to volunteer in Harar to contact her via phone or email for more information. "Inflation is bad in Harar, so we have to pay more to staff the clinic and meet the needs of children there. We will welcome anyone who wants to help," said Ketema.

For more information visit https://siloamethio.netlify.app/.