Papers by Tebaber Workneh
Medicinal plants and functional foods sold by market vendors and used by their clients for COVID-19 in Gondar City, Ethiopia
World journal of advanced pharmaceutical and medical research, Jan 29, 2024
“The six-month bullet fence”: the voice of armed conflict survivors in Kobo and Agamsa districts, Amhara region of Ethiopia
Cogent arts & humanities, Apr 13, 2024
Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, Aug 9, 2020
Background: This study explores the contribution made by indigenous medicine to primary healthcar... more Background: This study explores the contribution made by indigenous medicine to primary healthcare services in West Belesa Woreda (District) in northwestern Ethiopia. Objective: The study aims to examine the practices of indigenous medicine in three communities in West Belesa Woreda, the perceptions of its use and efficacy among indigenous medical practitioners and biomedical healthcare practitioners, and their views on its role in primary healthcare. Methods: Qualitative research, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and direct observation, using an ethnographic design, was conducted from February to April 2017. In total, 16 key informants were interviewed and six focus group discussion sessions were held. Thematic analysis was undertaken to analyze the data. Results: The local pluralistic healthcare system employs both indigenous medicine and biomedicine, often in combination. However, indigenous healing is generally the first choice due to its greater availability, affordability, and cultural acceptability. Malaria, intestinal worms, diarrhea, stomach ache, gastritis, wounds, snake bites, and epilepsy are commonly treated by herbalists with medicines prepared from plants and plant products. Illnesses that are perceived to be due to buda (evil eye) and spirit possession are mostly treated with tsebel (holy water), prayers and spirit exorcism. The findings also show that most modern healthcare providers have negative perceptions towards indigenous medicine, mainly because it lacks standards for prescribing medications. On the other hand, some beneficiaries of indigenous medicine asserted that indigenous healers provide better primary healthcare for spiritual illnesses and bone fractures. Conclusions: Understanding the cultural context of health, illness, and healing, and the involvement of indigenous healers in primary healthcare, may facilitate the provision of compatible treatments consistent with Amhara cultural and religious traditions and the integration of indigenous medicine and biomedicine. [Ethiop.
Ethiopian Renaissance Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
The concept of biodiversity has a strong link with nature and culture. This study aimed to invest... more The concept of biodiversity has a strong link with nature and culture. This study aimed to investigate how the Konso people of southwestern Ethiopia use cultural and spiritual values to conserve biodiversity. The study took place between January to April 2019 and March to July of 2021. Data were gathered using: focus group discussions (9 FGDs), in-depth interviews (with 26 key informants) and observation. A thematic analysis method was employed for analyzing the data. According to the findings of the study, the people of Konso have traditions of using dinna (holy woodlands) as locations for cultural rituals to relate with nature. The dinna’s survival is dependent on the clan’s leader (poqqola) and the village’s chiefs (shorogotta). Cutting of dinna is strictly forbidden because it is believed to result in punishment by the karroytta (deity of dead ancestors). In the Konso culture, cutting the whole shelkata (Moringa stenopetala) tree at once is considered as taboo since it is believ...
Vestnik Udmurtskogo Universiteta. Matematika. Mekhanika. Komp'yuternye Nauki, 2020
The nonlinear problem of the pressure field in the case of one-dimensional planar filtration is c... more The nonlinear problem of the pressure field in the case of one-dimensional planar filtration is considered, when changes in the density of the skeleton, as well as the filtered fluid, and pressure are proportionally related. To solve the problems, an asymptotic method is used, based on the introduction of a formal parameter in the problem under consideration and the representation of the desired solution in the form of an asymptotic formula for this parameter. It is shown that the statements of the corresponding problems for the asymptotic expansion coefficients are linear, and classical methods can be used to solve them. Analytical expressions for the coefficients of asymptotic expansion of the solution have been found. It is shown that the corresponding expansion coefficients of the residual term of the current number and all the preceding ones in the same formal parameter as for the desired solution vanish. The approach used opens up new possibilities for solving nonlinear filtering problems in an inhomogeneous anisotropic porous medium. Funding. The study of authors was funded by RFBR, project number 17-48-020517.
Exploring the contribution of indigenous medicine to primary healthcare in West Belesa District in northwestern Ethiopia: A qualitative analysis
Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, 2020
Background: This study explores the contribution made by indigenous medicine to primary healthcar... more Background: This study explores the contribution made by indigenous medicine to primary healthcare services in West Belesa Woreda (District) in northwestern Ethiopia. Objective: The study aims to examine the practices of indigenous medicine in three communities in West Belesa Woreda, the perceptions of its use and efficacy among indigenous medical practitioners and biomedical healthcare practitioners, and their views on its role in primary healthcare. Methods: Qualitative research, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and direct observation, using an ethnographic design, was conducted from February to April 2017. In total, 16 key informants were interviewed and six focus group discussion sessions were held. Thematic analysis was undertaken to analyze the data. Results: The local pluralistic healthcare system employs both indigenous medicine and biomedicine, often in combination. However, indigenous healing is generally the first choice due to its greater availabili...
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Background: Cross-cultural studies indicate that every culture has its own particular explanation... more Background: Cross-cultural studies indicate that every culture has its own particular explanations for health and illness and its own healing strategies. The Konso people have always practiced indigenous medicine and have multifaceted accounts or multiple dimensions of illness perceptions and health-care beliefs and practices. This paper describes how perceptions of health and illness are instrumental in health and treatment outcomes among the Konso people in southwestern Ethiopia. Results may provide an understanding of the perceptions of health and illness in relation to the local cosmology, religion, and environment. Methods: The ethnographic method was employed to generate evidence, complemented by focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and direct observation. Thematic analysis was employed to categorize and interpret the data. Results: Findings indicate that the Konso people's worldview, particularly as it relates to health, illness, and healing systems, is closely linked to their day-today lives. Older people believe illnesses are caused by a range of supernatural forces, including the wrath of God or local gods, oritta (spirit possession), and karayitta (ancestral spirits), and they use culturally prescribed treatment. Young and formally educated members of the community attribute causes of diseases to germitta (germs) and factorta (bacteria) and tend to seek treatment mostly in modern health facilities. Conclusion: Perceptions of health and illness as well as of healing are part of Konso people's worldview. Local communities comprehend health problems and solutions within their cultural frame of reference, which has changed over the years. The Konso people associate their health situations with socio-cultural and religious factors. The individual's behavior and interactions with the social, natural, and supernatural powers affect the well-being of the whole group. The individual, the family, the clan leaders, and the deceased are intimately linked to one's culturally based health beliefs and are associated by the Konso with health problems and illnesses.
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Papers by Tebaber Workneh