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| Ambassador's Speech>2011 >110210 | |||||
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| at the Inauguration Ceremony for the Project to Construct a Patient Staying Center in Dire Dawa on 10 February, 2011 | |||||
| Your Excellency, Ato Assed Ziyad, Mayor of Dire Dawa, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon. Endemen Walachehu. I am most grateful to all of you for your warm welcome today. This is my first trip to Dire Dawa as the new Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia. I have been looking forward to visiting this second largest city and the commercial and industrial center of the eastern part of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is such a big country with great regional diversity, and I am fully aware of the importance of visiting different parts of this country. I am so happy that I have been able to make it here today. It is also a great pleasure for me to attend this inauguration ceremony for the project to construct a Patient Staying Center in Dire Dawa. The project was funded by the Japanese Government through its grassroots human security grant-in-aid scheme, amounting to about USD 92,000. The grant contract was signed in October 2009 with the Cheshire Services Ethiopia, a celebrated Ethiopian NGO engaged in services for the disabled for nearly fifty years. Through this project, a block of facilities for disabled people with twenty beds, as well as toilets and shower rooms has been constructed. A feeding center to provide meals for disabled patients who stay and undergo treatment has been completed as well. The facilities will accommodate approximately 240 such patients in the first year. This number is expected to increase to 360 annually from the second year on, thanks to operational efficiency. This must be good news for those disabled people who had to give up treatment before as they were living far away from Dire Dawa and could not afford to pay for accommodations during their treatment. To my surprise, it requires 15 days on average for disabled patients to receive counseling, to have prosthetic limbs customized and to have the necessary training afterwards. This project is aimed at improving the treatment environment for underprivileged people with disabilities living far from here. Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Cheshire Services Ethiopia has made untiring efforts to provide support for disabled people, many of whom were victims of armed conflicts in the past or landmines in the Somali Region. More than 4,000 such people are said to live in Dire Dawa and its surrounding areas, and this organization has extended physiotherapy and orthopedic services to them since 2002. On behalf of the Embassy of Japan, I would like to pay tribute to the Cheshire Services Ethiopia for the role it has played in addressing this social issue for many years. Through this project I hope that you will keep doing a good job as a role model, serving vulnerable people with disabilities. In conclusion, I would like to share some of my wishes with you. The Patient Staying Center is now handed over to the organization. It has been aptly named the Kibou House (kibou meaning hope in Japanese) as it will give genuine hope to those disabled people who need the facilities. I am confident that all of you will work together to make the most use of it, while maintaining the facilities in good condition. Yet, it is more important that the underprivileged disabled people living far from here will enjoy the full benefits of treatment. I am sure that this will be done as well. Finally, I do hope that we can work together again in the future for the economic and social welfare of underprivileged people in this area. Thank you very much. Amesegenalehu. |
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