Our Ethiopian Team
Abrham Getachew heads our team in Addis Ababa as Ethiopian project manager. He supervised our Ethiopian team and plays a key role in making this a locally developed, locally driven initiative.
He is a public health professional whose broad understanding of the Ethiopian health system is rooted in eight years' experience working for government and non-governmental health delivery bodies. He has expertise in monitoring and evaluation and management, has lectured at various health-science university colleges and has served as a consultant on various national health studies.
Fikereye Beyene has served as our project assistant since 2013. Prior to this, he was also involved as our driver, guide and translator in the earliest stages of project development in 2012 and 2013.
Fikereye graduated from Bahir Dar University as an English language teacher and taught initially in government schools outside the capital. After moving to Addis Ababa, he was a partner in a private school there for several years before beginning this new phase of his career. "Working with this project makes me very happy; it lets me help save the lives of mothers."
Asegedech Befikadu is the project's midwives mentor; she is a dedicated midwife with more than 20 years of clinical, teaching and mentor-ship experience. She has been a tremendous asset to our project and SMTTP teaching team.
Asegedech looks forward to sharing her knowledge, as she began to do with our 2014 students during their week's return to the classroom at St. Paul's in November. " New midwives want to learn," she says, but adds that to fill gaps that come with inexperience they need help from more senior colleagues. "I want to share my skill."
Nebiyou Wendwessen is our data quality manager; his work will focus on health and medical statistics in Addis Ababa and especially at St. Paul's Hospital to support projects undertaken in the referral wing of the project. Nebiyou has a nursing degree from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences in Gondar, and a subsequent Master's of public health in health informatics.
In addition to three years' experience in data management and analysis, he has more than eight years under his belt in clinical work, teaching and monitoring and evaluation duties at the zonal and regional levels of Ethiopia's health system.
Abdulkadir Gelgelu Gemeda (B.Sc,) is our project's field data monitor for the catchment areas outside of Addis Ababa. A graduate of Addis Ababa University, he has worked as a consultant for several different local and international organizations. He is currently working towards his Masters of Public Health at Jimma University.
Henok Teka is the project's driver, a key role for taking members of both the Canadian and Ethiopian teams out to our catchment areas - to health facilities at both the regional and village level. He also transports instructors and other team members to and from their accommodation, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College and partner offices.
Henok was previously an ambulance driver for St. Paul's. As a result, his knowledge of Addis Ababa's side streets and shortcuts gives him an almost uncanny ability to navigate the capital's heavy traffic at a time of widespread, constant road and LRT construction.
Yodit Meseret is the project's Community Education Coordinator. Yodit has a midwifery degree from Addis Ababa University, and a subsequent Master's of Public Health from Debremarkos University. She is a skilled midwife, with over eight years of clinical and teaching experience. As Community Education Coordinator, Yodit plays a key role in organizing educational opportunities for midwives and other healthcare workers across Ethiopia, to further strengthen midwifery skills and service.