Ethiopia Healthcare Network Awards Maternal and Infant Care Grant to LeAlem Higher Clinic (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)

Ethiopia Healthcare Network Awards Maternal and Infant Care Grant to LeAlem
Higher Clinic (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Ethiopia Healthcare Network (EHN)
announced award of an initial maternal and infant healthcare grant to LeAlem
Higher Clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The competitive award will enable
LeAlem to care for 100 patients each month, patients who could not otherwise
afford or access professional medical care. The grant will provide funds for
LeAlem to hire medical and social work staff, and buy medicine and equipment.
LeAlem is headed by Dr. Alemayehu (Dinku) Gebrehiwot, Medical Director, a
specialist in pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine.

Upon learning of the award, Dr. Alemayehu responded, "[EHN's] support is a
godsend. We will now be able to treat more patients among my country's most
needful population." Only 52% of Ethiopians have access to health care
services and fewer than 6% of women have access to a health professional while
giving birth. Ethiopian women have a 1 in 27 chance of dying during
childbirth primarily due to preventable complications.

The EHN grant will provide healthcare for five new patients every day, 25
persons a week, and 100 persons a month for six months. As a result, healthier
children and women will perform their normal duties and strengthen
bread-winning activities. The EHN grant provides not just in-clinic care, but
social worker outreach to identify those most in need and monitor and support
post-clinic patient performance -- patient home care, access to and taking
medicines.

EHN is guided by a board of directors with expertise in obstetric and
emergency medicine, information systems and telecommunications, Ethiopia and
third-world development, and non-profit organizations. EHN will evaluate
LeAlem performance under the initial grant, and work to increase and extend
support and practices that prove most beneficial.

EHN President John W. Wimberly notes, "We envision this effort and LeAlem as a
highly-efficient model for care delivery and use of EHN resources. Our goal
is to use this model to extend support from 100 people to hundreds, if not
thousands, of patients each month at LeAlem and similar clinics." In the next
2-5 years, Wimberly notes, "EHN plans to add clinics and extend services and
capabilities to rural Ethiopia, where maternal and infant healthcare needs are
more dire than in the capital city."

http://www.ethiopiahealth.org

SOURCE Ethiopia Healthcare Network

Mike Smith, Mike Smith Public Affairs, +1-703-623-3834, mike@mikesmithpa.com;
or John Wimberly, president of Ethiopia Healthcare Network, +1-202-835-8383,
info@ethiopiahealth.org