Ethopia travel 2025
Dr. Wolfgang Krahl reporting After four years, I returned to Ethiopia for the first time. The pandemic and the devastating civil war in Tigray had long made travel impossible. During this period, contact with my friends and colleagues there was broken off; it was not until the beginning of last year that messages reached me again. They spoke of hunger, isolation, the lack of medical care, and an entire region suffering from the consequences of war. Despite all this hardship, they asked for support in rebuilding mental health services.I therefore decided to travel to Ethiopia once more. In Addis Ababa, I worked for several days with trainee psychiatrists, teaching the fundamentals of group therapy, day-clinic treatment, and outpatient addiction care. I also had the opportunity to visit a child psychiatry department and gain insight into projects dedicated to children’s mental health. I then flew on to Mekelle, where I led a workshop on outpatient addiction rehabilitation for healthcare professionals. There, it became clear how deep the psychological wounds are among healthcare workers themselves; an additional trauma-focused session was urgently requested.Finally, I traveled to Adama, where an exchange on treatment approaches took place together with traditional healers. Using case studies, both sides spoke openly about how they work, where differences lie, and how collaboration might look. The response was surprisingly positive, and a desire for further joint training emerged. This journey [...]






