Recipient: Free Methodist World
Mission Health Center
Shipment Number: 4090
Shipment Date: 6/9/2005
Value: $208,552
While Ethiopia is a country rich in diverse peoples, cultures, and languages, it often suffers from drought, severe malnutrition, and famine. Only 46 percent of the population has access to health care, and people often walk for days over difficult roads to reach medical help. The doctor-patient ratio in the country is about one to 80,000.
The Free Methodist Eye Care Treatment and Surgery Center is a part of the Free Methodist World Mission Health Center (FMWM). The Free Methodist World Mission (FMWM) established its first health center in the capital city of Addis Ababa in 1999, and has since added three satellite clinics providing care to a population of over 250,000. Direct Relief's shipment of ophthalmologic equipment, essential drugs, and medical supplies, will help the FMWM provide care to over 250,000 people whose only source of health care are the clinics they operate. Direct Relief thanks Merck & Company, Allergan, and Bausch & Lomb Surgical Company for their contributions to this shipment.