On the Road in Ethiopia with President Clinton
Submitted by: Matt McKenna, Communications Director 
Our internet connection is a bit hit or miss here – but I wanted to give an update from the road in Ethiopia where I am traveling with President Clinton. Earlier today we drove south out of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, down the bustling highway that connects Addis to the port of Djibouti. About two hours out of the capital, we turned onto a dirt road that took us to the village of Debre Zeit, site of the Godino Health Center. Godino is one of 50 rural health clinics in Ethiopia that the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) is supporting through a partnership with the government we launched today called the Ethiopian Millennial Rural Initiative (EMRI). In the future, the Ethiopian government hopes to expand that number into the thousands.
Children carry Ethiopian flags as they walk down a road before President Bill Clinton tours the Godino Health Center August 1, 2008 in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images For The Clinton Foundation)
After a tour of Godino, we walked a few hundred yards up the road to the town center. We were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of thousands of townspeople, some frenetically waving Ethiopian flags, some tending their cattle.
When the president addressed the crowd, he stressed the importance of not just treating specific diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, but strengthening the health systems that prevent these diseases from taking hold. This is what EMRI is all about: improving access to health care in rural communities remains one of the key challenges facing the developing world.
President Bill Clinton waves to a crowd after he visited the Godino Health Center. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images For The Clinton Foundation)
A big part of this will be expanding care for pregnant mothers and their infants. For example, in Ethiopia today, 30 percent of mothers transmit HIV to their children through labor or breastfeeding. Most of these transmissions occur because the mother does not know her HIV status. Even if she does know it is simply too difficult to make it to a clinic where she may be able to receive proper care. So CHAI is launching efforts to strengthen these services with the goal of dramatically reducing transmission rates in at least six countries, including Ethiopia.
So far spirits are high, thanks to the warm welcome we received in Debre Ziet. Next stop: Rwanda, where our journey continues…
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 am
I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Debre Zeit from 1963-1965!
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 am
keep up the good work
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I am following your tour with interest. As a hospice nurse, I travelled on a palliative care tour in January to Tanzania. My eyes were opened to the challenge of this global struggle. The memory of walking out of the hut of a 14 month old child and her mother, knowing that in two weeks they would most likely be dead will always remain with me. Through my years of experience in end of life care I have cared for the terminally ill with comfort and skill, however, from this hut I walked away helpless. The medications to treat them was available, the food to nourish them so their bodies would be able to handle the treatment was not. They would indeed die due to the lack of nutrition.
There were other challenges such as the lack of availalbity of pain medication, the lack of electricity in some of the hospitals, and mothers caring for their children without adequate shelter. However I am also left with the memory of witnessing a beautiful culture of people that cared for each other with love, with song and with prayer. The newly devloping hospice and palliative care teams throughout Tanzania take tremendous pride in their work. Volunteers who live in the community often work from sun up to sun down to care for those in need in their village.
I sincerely hope that this initiative looks at not simply the supply of medications and medical care but the bigger complexities surrounding this crisis. I pray for and support your efforts and look forward to following your journey.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thank you so much for sending your trip to Africa Blog connection to me.
I am very interested in the wonderful projects your foundation is doing in Africa.
It is a positive light for those countrieis in what is often a place of darkness.
I am not able to contribute financially at this time but hope you will keep me posted on this helpful and hopeful trip.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:43 am
President Clinton’s focus in not just treating disease but PREVENTING the same from occurring throws a new dimension into the wax.
A lot of govt’s and N.G.O’s have taken pleasure in collecting data and failing to use this very data to make life better. I worked with an N.G.O. in Kenya that approached HIV/ AIDS through a different perspective & it gives me great pleasure to see President Clinton approach the issue more or less under this umbrella.
Access to health care in the rural areas is a sticking point as would you believe it….some so called village health centres are the very sources of HIV Transmission? This partnership with the local people is both God send and most welcome.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
It was a pleasure to read your blog. I am very happy that President Clinton visited my country. I hope you have more photos to share from your trip to Godino. My daughter, Zeleka Yeraswork and her team organized his visit and I was told it was a great success. Zeleka returned to Ethiopia this summer, soon after obtaining her MA at Columbia University (SIPA), to manage the rural health initiative that President Clinton launched in Debre Zeit. I commend the Clinton Foundation for chosing rural health care as its contribution to millions of ethiopians who need access to basic services - a noble cause and a worthy investment.
Aster Zaoude