USAID Donates Vehicles to Strengthen Health Training Program

US Embassy Addis Ababa Press Release

January 18, 2007
No. 03/07

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday, January 18 officially hand over 20 new vehicles to the Ministry of Health tomorrow. The Toyota Land Cruisers, worth more than US $500,000, will be used to transport health officer university students and their instructors to and from twenty training hospitals located in the Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya, and SNNPR regions.

“Health officers receiving pre-service training will now be able to reach training hospitals and health centers in some of the most remote areas of Ethiopia. This exchange will improve the training of health officers and the quality of health services of rural communities. USAID is proud to be a part of that accomplishment,” USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Glenn Anders said. During the ceremony, Mr. Anders handed over the keys to one of the new vehicles to His Excellency Dr. Kebede Worku, State Minister of Health. The ceremony took place at the Ministry of Health garage facility in Addis Ababa.

The vehicle donation supports the Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative, which is improving the skills of front line health workers through enhanced training programs at Ethiopian universities. The health initiative began out of a conversation between Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter about how The Carter Center could help build the capacity of Ethiopia. They agreed that the health science facilities in Ethiopian universities needed to be strengthened.

Since 2000, USAID/Ethiopia has awarded The Carter Center more than US $12 million to develop improved health officers curriculum, enhance the teaching and learning environment, and train university instructors in pedagogical skills and drought health response. The Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative now covers seven universities.

The teaching and learning environment, especially within the universities, has improved markedly because of the Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative. Over 3,000 health officers will graduate from the program by 2008.