Ethiopian Diaspora Member at White House WAD Meeting
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President George W. Bush talks with reporters at a meeting
hosted by President Bush and Laura Bush on World AIDS Day in the Roosevelt
Room at the White House, Friday, Dec. 1, 2006. President Bush said the
United States is committed in helping solve this problem by dedicating
a lot of resources to battle against HIV/AIDS around the world. President
Bush is seen with, from left to right, Dr. Getachew Feleke of the Nassau
U. Medical Center of Farmingdale, N.Y.; U.S. Secretary of Health and Human
Resources, Michael O. Leavitt and Angelina Magaga, right, of the Light
and Courage Center Trust of Botswana, Africa. White House photo by Eric
Draper
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Dr. Getachew Feleke, Chief of Infectious Diseases Division at the Nassau University
Medical Center in East Meadow, New York, attended a meeting hosted by President
George Bush on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2006, one of two distinguished African
doctors present. He served as a volunteer at Mekdim Ethiopia as part of a program
managed by the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Getachew assisted
Mekdim with its antiretroviral treatment program and conducted workshops on
various HIV/AIDS care and treatment topics.
Mekdim is a local organization for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA)
that provides care and support to PLWHAs and orphans. The HIV/AIDS Twinning
Center identifies and places professionals from the Ethiopian Diaspora in critically
needed assignments in Ethiopia, primarily at treatment sites and HIV/AIDS service
organizations, as part of its Ethiopia Diaspora Initiative, funded by PEPFAR
(President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). PEPFAR supports innovative partnerships
to train local health care professionals. For example, a PEPFAR initiative launched
in May 2006 places health care professionals from the Ethiopian Diaspora in
volunteer assignments in Ethiopia to train and work side-by-side with their
Ethiopian counterparts. This initiative will use a new database to identify
qualified professionals from the Diaspora to help Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS campaign.
The HIV/AIDS Twinning program and Ethiopia Diaspora Initiative strive to improve
Ethiopia’s capacity to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, and to manage and
deliver HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment by identifying assignments,
developing the work to be carried out, and finding volunteers to match them.
It has so far accommodated four volunteers, with another two starting in January
2007, and four more in progress. Most volunteers come from the US Diaspora,
but there is also one from Australia and one from Sweden. They consist of doctors,
infectious disease specialists, information technologists, psychiatrists, social
workers, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and public health specialists.
Their assignments can last from six weeks to one year, but most have spent six
months to one year.
Dr. Getachew obtained his medical degree from Addis Ababa University in 1975,
and served as a clinician and medical director in various Ethiopian hospitals.
He also studied respiratory medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada
where he did his residency in internal medicine. He is a certified HIV Specialist
and a member of several national and international professional organizations,
as well as a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
For more information on the program and Dr. Getachew, see:
Also, see the Press
Release of the meeting.
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