AHOPE Ethiopia is an Ethiopian Residents Charity which is a pioneer in the area of provision of specialized care to destitute HIV positive orphans and vulnerable children and their extended families in order to improve their health and general living condition.
Handing over the stated amount of money to AHOPE organization, Mr. Amir Maimon, Chargé d’Affaires of the Israeli Embassy, said “this token reflects the desire to expand the fruitful cooperation that existed between the governments to the society.”
During this year as well, two Israeli humanitarian medical NGOs have given similar humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia. They have given free eye treatment and eye surgeries to patients in Gondar and Jinka towns. In coordination with Israel’s National Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV), the Israeli humanitarian medical team called Khan Foundation with Ethiopian experts gave free eye surgeries and medical operations to patients in remote areas of Jinka town of the South Omo zone in February, 2012. The other Israeli humanitarian medical team called Eye from Zion also gave the same medical operations free for the needy in Gondar town of Amhara region in March, 2012. Both humanitarian organizations had given such charitable activities last year also.
In addition to the above humanitarian missions, MASHAV has for years undertaken various agricultural and health projects in Ethiopia with development partners USAID and GIZ in the framework of bilateral and trilateral cooperation agreements with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture along with the Israeli Medical Consortium for HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
Mr. Amir Maimon underscored that, apart from these immensely rewarding development cooperation projects, in the long term it is the long lasting human ties between the people of Israel and Ethiopia that are the “real, human bridge between the two countries”.