On August 3, 2011, the first signing ceremony for the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) in the Japanese Fiscal Year (JFY) 2011 took place at the Japanese Embassy in Addis Ababa. The Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital in Bahir Dar was invited to attend the ceremony as the project partner.  The amount of funding extended was USD 113,208 (one hundred and thirteen thousand, two hundred and eight US dollars).


The Project is for the improvement of the condition of the inpatient wards at the Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital in Bahir Dar, Amhara National Regional State. In Ethiopia, many medical institutions are invariably dilapidated and ill-equipped.  Even at the Felege Referral Hospital, one of the core hospitals in the region, its medical facilities are in a state of disrepair and need urgent improvement.  In particular, beds are in short supply, and every day, about 30 patients are forced to lie on mattresses, stretchers or even just cloth on the floor as substitutes for proper medical beds.  There are six inpatient wards in the hospital with 350 beds in total.  However, 30 of these are not usable and another 90 beds are in use but are in very poor condition.  By providing 120 refurbished Japanese hospital beds, this project will improve the hospital’s capacity to treat inpatients.


This project also aims to enhance a health project being conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the Amhara Regional Health Bureau, namely the “Amhara Regional Infectious Disease Surveillance (AmRids)”. This project aims to strengthen the disease surveillance scheme in the Region.  It also aims to establish a referral system, including a database, in which patients are referred from local health units to one of the referral hospitals for major operations and intensive care. 

On the occasion of the signing ceremony, H.E. Mr. Hiroyuki Kishino, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ethiopia, expressed that these two health projects are synchronized and will proceed hand in hand in Bahir Dar in the coming year.  His Excellency also hoped that through these projects, health conditions for 200,000 citizens of Bahir Dar and its vicinity are expected to improve, including the reduction of unnecessary deaths from various diseases. 


Since 1997, the Embassy of Japan in Ethiopia has supported about 290 Grassroots Human Security Projects in various parts of Ethiopia, in education, water supply, agriculture, health and other areas of basic human needs.  The Embassy of Japan will continue to support a variety of projects at the grassroots level for the benefit of marginalized and vulnerable people in Ethiopia, and plans to support 18 such projects throughout Ethiopia this Japanese fiscal year.