Siloam Ethiopia will host a fundraiser meal at Ethiopian Evangelical Church, 175 Church St., Landisville, on Saturday, March 11, from noon to 4:30 p.m. Traditional Ethiopian meals will be available to purchase for curbside pickup, and proceeds from the event will benefit the nonprofit organization's humanitarian efforts in Harar, Ethiopia.

Each meal will offer a choice of three Ethiopian 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. Injera, a type of Ethiopian flatbread, will be served with each dish.

Siloam Ethiopia's founder, Wegayhu Ketema, recently returned from a five-week mission trip to Harar. The organization operates a free medical clinic for those in the city who are homeless or in need of treatment. Ketema was accompanied by Kari Oftedal, Jason Craig, Faith Higley and Patrick Engle of Community Fellowship Church in Lancaster. Community Fellowship Church has been financially supporting Siloam Ethiopia's projects and trips to Harar for the last three years.

Oftedal, who is a doctor at Lancaster General Health, saw 35 to 40 patients each day at the free clinic. "She was extraordinary with her compassion and her care," Ketema said. Siloam Ethiopia also partnered with Vision Care Ethiopia, a ministry based in Landisville that seeks to meet the optical needs of those in Ethiopia. Ketema and the other volunteers sorted, cleaned and distributed 150 pairs of glasses to residents of Harar during their trip.

During the trip, the volunteers in the group also spent time engaging with a girls' orphanage in Harar. Higley assisted with organizing the storage room and its contents and taught the girls at the orphanage how to fashion washable sanitary pads, as many of the girls often cannot afford disposable ones. Engle helped to construct shelves for the storage room, and each member of the team spent time engaging with the kids at the orphanage.

"We wanted to spend time bonding with the kids and letting them know that they're cared for," Ketema said. "Every morning we had breakfast with them and take them out of the orphanage for a little while."

Ketema arrived in Harar ahead of the other volunteers to prepare for the various projects that they would be working on. This is the first time that Ketema has been joined by a team of volunteers to assist with the clinic and orphanage, and the rest of the team spent a total of 10 days in Harar.

To reserve a meal for the fundraiser, call 717-669-0930. For more information on Siloam Ethiopia, visit https://siloamethio.netlify.app/.