Menase Kifle
28 March 2008
Addis Ababa — German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association this week marked 50 years of professional service to Ethiopian patients.
A series of events were organized in connection to the celebrations, among which was a bazar that was held at the Addis Ababa Exhibition Centre where various types of handicraft made by persons with disabilities was on display.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Health Dr Tewodros Adhanom expresed gratefulness to the service rendered by the German NGO over that last 50 years and the difference it made in improving the lives of leprosy and TB patients in the country.
German Ambassador to Ethiopia Dr. Claas Dieter Knoop said on his part that the long standing Ethio-German cooperation would continue in this sector.
During an event organized on the previous day in connection with the anniversary, State minister of health Dr. Shiferaw Kebede called up on all stake holders to join hands and step up the fight against tuberculosis and leprosy.
Shifraw said some 3,200 health extension workers were being trained and recruited with a view to improving the quality of health extension program in the country.He said the health extension workers would be assigned at health centers and each of them will conduct supportive supervision to ten health extension workers each.
Also speaking on the occasion was GLRA deputy president Gudrun Freifrau von Wiedersperg, who said that since its early days, the association key mandate has always been the financial and technical support for humanitarian efforts in the fight against leprosy and TB.
Since its establishment in Ethiopia, GLRA has treated 133,000 leprosy patients and about one million tuberculosis patients in 9 regions and 2 administrative councils of the country, the deputy director pointed out.
GLRA is also involved in 13 socio-economic rehabilitation projects such as vocational training and self help groups as well as 9 orthopaedic workshops.
GLRA has spent about 62 million Euro collected from private house holds in Germany in Ethiopia.
There will be a field visit to Bessidimo, a small country village in the Harrari regional state, where the German NGO has financed water project expected to benefit 10,000 local and a high school that will accommodate 500 students will be inaugurated.
The village was where, fifty years ago, a young German reporter and his companion a theology student, visited a dilapidated home for leprosy patients in the suburbs of Harar.
Back home in Germany they started to raise funds to help improve the situation of the leprosy patients.
The overwhelming response of the German public led to the creation of the association of GLRA.
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