First National Public Health Training Center to be constructed
The Ethiopian Minster of Health Dr. Tedros Adhanom and the US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald E. Booth broke ground on the construction of the first National Public Health Training Center at the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI), October 22, 2012.
The training center, which is going to be the first training center for health, will act as a training and support hub for the Ethiopia’s national public health monitoring, research and laboratory network.
At the groundbreaking Ceremony held at the compound of EHNRI, Dr. Tedros Adhanom said that the construction of the training center, in addition to the provision of highly facilitated training environment, I believe will also help the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute and the entire health system to host to the standard trainings that addresses problems of the health sector.
Dr. Tedros has also conveyed his appreciation and gratitude to the People of the United States and the US President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for the provided financial and technical support to the construction of the training center.
According to the press release, issued on the groundbreaking by the Embassy of the United States in Addis Ababa, US $4 million has been committed for the construction of the training center that will be completed over one and half years.
On his behalf, the US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald E. Booth has also said that, strategically placed U.S. Government investments expand and improve the functioning of the health care workforce; emphasizing holistic pre-service education, which prepares workers to address both HIV and broader health care needs.
On his speech, Dr. Amha Kebede, Director General of EHNIR said that on completion of this training center, there will be a huge potential to offer many customized trainings with enormous prospect in the future to extend to postgraduate levels geared to the service of the public health activates of the Ministry an our mission and vision.
‘’This kind of support of construction by the People of the United States through CDC/PEPFAR for us is not for the first time; we had the pleasure of a similar support few years back in the form of state-of-the-art HIV and related Health Laboratories and offices and auditorium’’ Dr. Amha added.
It is known that since 2004, CDC-Ethiopia has collaborated with the Ethiopian Government to renovate and construct regional public health laboratories, outpatient departments in hospitals, training venues for health workers and other health related facilities that bring direct benefit to the people of Ethiopia.