BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
ADDIS ABABA– Sidama State President Desta Ledamo together with Ethiopian Catholic Church Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew, stakeholders, and Officials inaugurated the Bushulo Mother, Newborn and Child Health Specialty Center (MNCH Center in Hawassa city.
The centre was built with an outlay of over 324 million Birr , it was learnt. Speaking at the event, Sidama State President Desta Ledamo said that religious institutions, apart from preaching citizens about eternal life, are required to provide congregations with health, education, and social services so that people would enjoy leading a healthy life.
Ethiopian Catholic Church, based on international experience and standards, build the hospital so that mothers and children can get appropriate health services. The facilities of the hospital can also be a model not only for the Sidam state’s health sector but also for the entire country. The government will provide all the necessary support for the expansion of such health facilities in the state, he explained.
Sidama Regional Health Bureau Head Selamawit Mengesha (MD) noted that organizing the hospital with modern health facilities will enable it to treat not only the people in the state but also the community in the neighboring states. Organizing and equipping the hospital with modern medical technologies and human resources are imperative to share knowledge, skills, and experience with other government medical institutions across the country, she said.
Besides, transforming the health center into a hospital helps provide advanced mother and child medical services which support the efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality, he added. Cardinal of the Ethiopian Catholic Church Abune Berhaneyesus Demerew explained that traditional medicine has been practiced in Ethiopia for a long time and it is not new in the country. However, modern medical services are not yet developed to the required standard and level following lack of required resource; capital to run a range of activities, the move has been confined solely urban areas, among others.
As a result, the Church opened the BushuloLoke health center 36 years ago to support the effort of addressing modern medical services. Currently, the church has transformed the health center into the MNCH Center by covering the construction cost. The MNCH Center is one of the 13 health facilities under Hawassa Catholic Church which enable the local community to get standard medical services regardless of race, color, and religion, he underlined.
Sister Doctor Isabel Arbide, one of the first Franciscan missionaries of Mary who came and worked in Bushulo, stated that the government has attached special emphasis to maternal and child health services. In this context, after several visibility studies, the health center transformed into a MNCHCenter to provide sustainable, affordable, and quality Mother and Child Health Services as well as reduce maternal, child, and infant mortality rates.
She further stated that the church is ready to do similar work in coordination with the federal government, the region, and the relevant bodies. MNCH Center has been providing health services in an unorganized manner for 44 years, and it started providing treatment at the level of a health center in 1979. Currently, the center transformed into a Maternal and Child Special Medical Center.
THE ETHIOPIAN TUESDAY 14 MARCH 2023
