Hello everyone, Tim writing his first blog entry here. Today just so happened to be my first full day in Addis and I have to admit that I was inspired by our meetings and presentations. This morning, we had the opportunity to visit Mr. Wondu Bekele Woldemariam, the General Manager of Mathiwos Wondu-YeEthiopia Cancer Society. Mr. Wondu created this organization in honor of his son Mathiwos who passed away from leukemia. He sacrificed financial stability in order to create this legacy organization in his son’s honor. Due to hard work and his passion to help others, Wondu has made the Mathiwos Wondu-YeEthiopia Cancer Society (MWYECS) into something special. This organization provides financial, clothing, housing, transportation, and psychosocial support to cancer patients being treated at the Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa. The focus is on pediatric cancer while they are starting to branch out into women’s cancers (breast and cervical) which also happen to be the most prevalent in Ethiopia.
As you can imagine, we had a lot of questions and were provided an incredible amount of information. Mr. Wondu also sits in a number of key positions including the Global Cancer Ambassador for Ethiopia with the American Cancer Society. He was a wealth of knowledge and an inspiration to the efforts we are putting forward. We also had the pleasure of touring his facility and meeting some of the patients and family members who utilize their services. The facility is currently supporting 24 patients and their families. Capping off the trip, MWYECS fed us wat and injera which has been by far the best meal I have had upon coming here.
Once we completed this meeting, we traveled back through the city of Addis and were able to see for the first time other parts of the city. Construction here is booming in much of the downtown core; however, many of the buildings seem to be half constructed. We traveled down a number of major routes and saw some things you wouldn’t in downtown Edmonton. Some of the most well behaved goats live in packs on the side of the road and don’t seem to be bothered by the Canadian tourists taking their pictures. All-in-all it was an amazing trip and really opened my eyes to the different challenges cancer patients and the business problem face in Ethiopia. Here is Doran for a recount of the afternoon.
As you can imagine, we had a lot of questions and were provided an incredible amount of information. Mr. Wondu also sits in a number of key positions including the Global Cancer Ambassador for Ethiopia with the American Cancer Society. He was a wealth of knowledge and an inspiration to the efforts we are putting forward. We also had the pleasure of touring his facility and meeting some of the patients and family members who utilize their services. The facility is currently supporting 24 patients and their families. Capping off the trip, MWYECS fed us wat and injera which has been by far the best meal I have had upon coming here.
Once we completed this meeting, we traveled back through the city of Addis and were able to see for the first time other parts of the city. Construction here is booming in much of the downtown core; however, many of the buildings seem to be half constructed. We traveled down a number of major routes and saw some things you wouldn’t in downtown Edmonton. Some of the most well behaved goats live in packs on the side of the road and don’t seem to be bothered by the Canadian tourists taking their pictures. All-in-all it was an amazing trip and really opened my eyes to the different challenges cancer patients and the business problem face in Ethiopia. Here is Doran for a recount of the afternoon.
Hello everyone, Doran here. This afternoon was a meet and greet/introduction between teams for the Frontiers of Business Class and IGAD. I had the privilege of being part of the team to present our project to Dr. Girum from IGAD and we followed up with a question period between ourselves and Dr. Girum. I was pleased to find out that he was arranging meetings with us and the Deputy Prime Minister as well as a meeting with the Ethiopian Health Minister tomorrow. We also met with a World Health Organization representative who was responsible for Non-communicable diseases for Ethiopia. We talked about many different initiatives as well as different channels that information is delivered throughout Ethiopia. Many of the different pieces and meetings appear to be falling into place. As well there appears to be Ethiopian coffee served at each meeting. As a lover of all things coffee these meetings are going to be a breeze.
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