About The National Epilepsy Week

The National Epilepsy Week is a yearly unique event organized by CareEpilepsy Ethiopia to acknowledge and highlight the psychosocial, economic and healthcare challenges faced by people with epilepsy, their families and carers. This program will also give the opportunity to sponsors, partners and stakeholders to make a difference for people with epilepsy.

Objectives of the 2023 National Epilepsy Week Event

What makes this year more special is the program will:

• be a hybrid that combines a "live" in-person event with a "virtual" online component.
• pilot a telemedicine service to increasing access to epilepsy specialist doctors
• increase nurses, midwives and health officers capacity to treat epilepsy by providing a two day clinical training and support.
• raise awareness on human rights violations which are widespread among people with epilepsy, including being denied treatment, education, and employment.

Target Group
This event's target group are people with epilepsy, their families, clinical staff (nurses, health officer, midwives), youth leaders, policymakers, religious leaders and the community in general of all ages.

Duration
One week, 13th - 18th February 2023.

All the above activities are geared towards sensitizing the community, reducing stigma and working with stakeholders to ensure epilepsy patients can access adequate epilepsy care and treatment as well as education and employment.

Trying to overcome deep-rooted traditions, prejudices and misconceptions is always an uphill battle. Nevertheless, CareEpilepsy Ethiopia believes that the key to overcoming deep-rooted cultural practices, norms and religious interpretations of numerous aspects of Epilepsy lies in raising awareness and having access to AEDs.  It is high time to FOCUS on epilepsy and care for this community of people!  Without FOCUS and a strong voice, epilepsy is neglected compared to other diseases notwithstanding so many patients in Ethiopia are severely impacted by the disease.