History of the Organisation
The Raaso Relief Rehabilitation and Development Organization Inc. is a Melbourne based, volunteer-run organisation. The Organisation was founded by Abdalla Ahmed, a Somali Community Leader in West Heidelberg. Abdalla was deeply affected by the poverty and sickness he witnessed on a visit in 2005 to Raaso, located in the Somali region of Ethiopia.

After a second visit in 2006, Abdalla promised the people of Raaso that he would help them. Thus our Organisation, assisted by Banyule Community Health, was created and is committed to improving the lives of people living in Raaso

Read more about the organisation in the PDF information sheet.

The land where the hospital will be situated

Citizens of Raaso with their dwellings in the background

Map of Ethiopia showing Raaso

Quotes from local Somalis:

I have left all my family behind in Raaso and they continue to live in a terrible situation with no food, no education, no hospitals, no water and no sanitation. I am always sad here when I think of what is happening to my relatives.

All of my brothers and sisters live in Raaso - I am here alone. I have stopped looking at the photos of my relatives in Raaso - it is too hard. I cannot eat, I can only think about my family

I feel so bad - I have three meals a day and my family in Raaso cannot get even one meal a day. I do not want to eat.

I have had my telephone disconnected because I can no longer bear to hear the stories of my family in Raaso. I feel helpless. We are doing what we can but we have limited resources too.

I am a single mother, caring for two of my own children and four other children, my brother’s children. He and his wife died in Somalia. My sisters and brothers live in Raaso with their families. I am not working. My children are teenagers. They do not understand that the extra money I have must go to Raaso - I cannot buy them clothes or spend money on things here when my family in Raaso does not have any food.