I have lost many of my own relatives and neighbors as a result of lack of proper medical care. Some of them were pregnant women who needed medical help to deliver their babies, others sick with simple communicable diseases which could have been treated with IV fluid for re-hydration. For most of the patients, by the time they got to the nearest clinic it was too late to treat the patients and save their lives. Either they had to travel long distances by foot, were handicapped by financial problems, or suffered from lack of education about the degree of the illness and the disease process.

Those moments of hopelessness and frustration confused me and made me think. I had lots of questions about why this was happening. I wondered, “Why do they have to mourn so much? Can someone do something about this? Why didn’t health care workers help them? Can I do something about this?”

I remember when I was a child playing with my friends, I used to pretend I was a nurse and tried to help patients by giving them medications and talking to them. So as an adult, I went to nursing school and became a nurse. Working as a nurse in a completely different health care system, in America, helped me gain new perspective and think of a plan for fulfilling my childhood dream of being a good nurse willing to do anything to help others. It helped me realize I can do a lot more than just working as a nurse to make a living.

I can reach others, including the health care workers I blamed when I was little for not doing enough to help those suffering. Things haven’t improved since I left Ethiopia. They need our help, and I know anything that you and I can do will be greatly appreciated. If I can save even one life from unnecessary and preventable suffering and death, it is worth the effort that I put in to found this organization.

(In Ethiopia) when someone is sick, even with simple communicable illness, there is a very good chance that individual may not be able to make it. Think about the people who have to travel long distances by foot carrying their loved ones to the clinic – how emotionally and physically exhausting it can be, especially when there is not much hope, only uncertainty. Sometimes I wonder, “How much can a human being endure?” Carrying a sick person and traveling by foot for several hours in the 21st century doesn’t seem real. Believe me, it is the reality for millions of people in the region where I came from.

The health care crisis in the area where I grew up is out of control. I don’t have enough words to explain how acute the problem is. Visiting a local government-run clinic for few minutes tells the whole story – the crowd, the filth, the waiting, the lack of even sitting benches for patients in the waiting area, the clinic corridors filled with the sick, the smell, the miserable faces of the loved ones who bring the sick, the cry of the helpless kids – it goes on and on. Everything is scarce in such clinics – even simple plastic gloves are a hot commodity.

Because of lack of transportation and nearby medical facilities in the rural areas, people sometimes have to travel up to 10 hours on foot carrying the sick on a wooden bed. This includes pregnant mothers who die at their homes or in transit to a clinic because of lack of knowledge of how to care for themselves and the absence of medical facilities. As the population is growing rapidly, communicable diseases, STDs HIV, and TB are escalating the problem even more.

After doing some soul searching, I have decided to form this charitable organization with the hope of helping the poor and underprivileged in Northwestern Ethiopia. I am hoping with your help, we can make a real difference in peoples’ lives. Every time you think about what you have done for these people, I believe you will feel satisfied for doing your part to make this world a better place for the sick and underprivileged.


Because of your contribution a child can receive immunization, a mother can see her newborn baby and those hopeless elders can now have hope, because they know their grand kids can feed them and dress them when they no longer can. Your contribution will help to build health care facilities, provide education to health care workers and the general public on disease prevention by reaching one clinic at a time.

My My hope is that with the help of individuals like you, along with the donations of organizations, Clinic at a Time, Inc. will be able to help these people. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated and monthly progress updates will be posted on this web site to inform you about how your contribution is changing people’s lives.