Siloam Ethiopia will host a fundraiser meal at Ethiopian Evangelical Church, 175 Church St., Landisville, on Saturday, Nov. 19, from noon to 4:30 p.m. A variety of meals will be available to purchase for curbside pick up, and the funds raised from the event will support the organization's free clinic in Harar, Ethiopia.

Each meal will include a choice of three different Ethiopian dishes, such as 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 also be served with injera, a type of Ethiopian flatbread.

The clinic in Harar provides free medical services for people who are in need or homeless throughout the city. "The people of Lancaster have always been so generous in supporting our clinic," said Wegayhu Ketema, co-founder of Siloam Ethiopia. "You can't accomplish a big dream like this by yourself, and we've seen the heart that people in the area have through their continued support."

Ketema grew up in Harar, where she lived in a one-bedroom house with her grandmother. Each morning, she would see a nurse passing by on the way to work and wished to someday become a nurse herself and in some way be able to support the people in her hometown. She became a licensed nurse while living in India in 1985 and moved many more times before coming to the United States in 1989, fleeing religious persecution in Kenya.

Ketema has lived in Lancaster for 34 years now and works as a nurse at Lancaster General Hospital. She co-founded Siloam Ethiopia in 2015, and over the last seven years she has helped dig multiple wells to provide clean water for those in Harar in addition to offering the free clinic. Ketema has received abundant support from many people in the Landisville community, and several local missionaries have taken trips to Ethiopia to assist with projects there. "We knew that people would support us here," she said. "Our fundraisers have always been very successful and allowed us to continue our work in Harar."

For more information on Siloam Ethiopia, visit https://siloamethio.netlify.app/.