So have you looked at the video yet? No. Why not. Have you taken some actions to help this project out? Why not? Visit their web site: http://www.clinicatatime.org/News.htm

Here is some of what you will find out about this project:

The following article about the founding of Clinic at a Time Inc. ran in the February 2008 issue of “Nursingmatters.” Versions of it also appeared in “Madison Area Neighbors,” “The Orthodox News” and the “Faith and Healing Wire.” As information about CAAT appears in the media – and as press releases about progress and upcoming events and fundraisers are available - they will be posted here.

Local nurse works to improve health in Ethiopia

Teresa Peneguy Paprock, managing editor, Nursingmatters

For Mulusew Yayehyirad, memories of the suffering she witnessed as a child growing up in Ethiopia are never very far away. But today, Mulu – a registered nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison and the mother of four children – believes she can help to bring about change, one day at a time and “one clinic at a time.”

Mulu has founded Clinic at a Time, a non-profit charitable organization to raise funds to help build new public health care facilities and provide health education to the people of the Gojjam region of five million people, where Mulu grew up. “Because they are economically and educationally disadvantaged, underprivileged and nearly forgotten,” she says, “they are invisible to most of us and they are disconnected from the rest of us. They need the eyes of their own people to see them, to hear their voices and understand their co-existence so they can be reconnected with the rest of the world.”

Mulu was fortunate. Her parents were comparatively well-off financially, by the standards of Ethiopia – and they were deeply generous people motivated by a deep and abiding faith. “I grew up in a very good Orthodox (Christian) household and society,” says Mulu, who is a member of Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in Madison. (More than half of the population of Ethiopia belongs to the Orthodox Christian faith.) “

I have learned a lot from my parents,” she says. “They raised more than 10 of their relatives and helped them to go to school … My mom and dad used to take food, drinks and clothing to the church where most of the homeless people gather around during holidays like Easter and Christmas.”

But even in such a family, the pain caused by poverty and civil war was never far away. “My mother had seven miscarriages,” says Mulu, “and I still have memories of the civil war … life was traumatic there. And when someone was sick, there was so little that could be done.”

Mulu graduated from high school – something many Ethiopian girls cannot do – and was able to come to the United States when she married and was able to attend college to become an RN. “I remember when I was a child playing with my friends, I used to pretend as if I was a nurse and trying to help patients, giving them medications,” she says.

But in one of the poorest countries in the world, with a life expectancy rate of 48 and almost 100 deaths for every 1,000 live births, even the hospitals are nightmarish. “The crowd, the filth, the waiting, the lack of even sitting benches … the smell, the miserable faces of the loved ones who bring the sick,” she remembers – and patients may have walked for 10 hours to get there.

Ethiopian society is plagued by myriad health problems. AIDS is a major issue there, with an estimated 3 million people infected and taboos against discussing ways to prevent the disease, such as condom use.

In addition, more than 70 percent women in Ethiopia are subjected to the traditional cultural practice of “girizat,” often referred to as female circumcision but more accurately described as genital mutilation. While officially discouraged by the government as well as many religious leaders, the practice is nevertheless common throughout the entire region – despite religious background, education, or economic status.

Some girls die as a direct result of the procedure, from bleeding and shock; many women later suffer incontinence, pain during intercourse and complications in childbirth. A movement is underway to educate the population about the problems of the practice – but again, discussion about these problems is taboo. “In Ethiopia, people won’t talk about sex in public,” says Mulu, “but now people are beginning to open up.”

Ethiopians also suffer from all the health complications that arise from poverty itself – dysentery, tuberculosis, pneumonia, malnutrition and anemia. Children die of upper respiratory illnesses, diarrhea, and fevers; nearly 60 percent of childhood morbidity is entirely preventable with medicines readily available in other parts of the world. Mulu wants to see these realities change and she is hoping that with the financial help of others who care about the problem, she can work with a committee in Ethiopia to help bring about small changes at first, and bigger ones later.

“I feel so lucky to be here,” Mulu says. “I feel so blessed. But I still have flashbacks from what I witnessed as a child. I was only one step away from that kind of poverty.” Today, Mulu is studying for her BSN, along with her job in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at St Mary’s. Her children Mesi, 16; and twins Mikias and Marcus, 11, attend local schools; she also has baby Michael, at home. Around those many commitments, Mulu is working on her Clinic At A Time project, a not-for-profit charitable organization. Much of her energy comes from her faith: “I think my faith helped me to become a better person and to do good for people,” she says. “It also helped and still is helping me to hold on to the things that I believe in and to have a positive attitude about all the things I do and whatever is going on in my life.”

Mulu recognizes the need for accountability in her clinic project. “This organization will work closely with the (Ethiopian) regional governmental authorities, other civic organizations and community volunteers,” she says, adding that the Ethiopian committee will “include trusted and well-respected elders, as well as experienced professionals to oversee the project’s execution closely.” Projects to be funded will be selected based on “cost, level of impact to the area’s residents … and the time needed to complete the project.”

Mulu has also created a Web site with more information about the organization, and as projects progress, construction updates will be posted on the site. “At the completion of each project, its impact on the actual users of the services will be measured and documented,” she says.

Mulu’s greatest challenge might be to help Americans – especially those in the prosperous Madison area – understand the dire need in Gojjam. At an open house recently, Mulu showed a videotape of a “clinic” (actually, a shack) there. “I want people to see we really aren’t exaggerating; it really is that bad,” she says.

More information on Clinic At A Time, and on Mulu, can be found on the Web site at www.clinicatatime.org or by calling 239-3091.

ABOUT CLINIC AT A TIME INC.

Clinic at a Time Inc., is a not-for-profit, charitable, 501(c)(3) organization, founded in March 2007 in Madison, Wisconsin by Mulusew Yayehyirad, executive director, with her husband and co-founder, Muluken Tilahun.

The goal of the organization is to improve the quality of health care for the poor and the underprivileged communities in the Province of Gojjam, located in northwestern Ethiopia. We plan to do this by collecting and providing medical supplies; helping to improve existing public health care facilities; helping to build new facilities; and providing health care-related information and education to health care workers and the community.

A variety of other organizations have similar missions. What is unique about CAAT?

Our founder Mulusew (“Mulu”), an intensive care Nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, grew up in the town of Bichena, Gojjam and still has many family members and friends there.

Working from her home – with no paid staff and virtually no “overhead” costs – Mulu is able to commit 100 percent of the donations collected for CAAT toward improving health conditions in Gojjam. Everyone working with CAAT is doing so on a volunteer basis. And because of her lifelong ties to the community, Mulu can work directly with regional government authorities, civic organizations and community volunteers there. A committee of trusted and well-respected elders and experienced professionals in the area has been organized in Bichena to oversee the project’s execution closely. Projects for funding will be selected based on cost, level of impact to the area’s residents as related to CAAT’s mission, and time needed to complete the project. Moreover, Mulu will make periodic visits to the area to personally oversee the progress being made. Updates on construction and other improvements will be posted on this website, and at the completion of each project, its impact on the actual users of the services will be measured and documented.

CAAT is truly a unique organization. Because of Mulu’s personal connections to people in the region – and because of CAAT’s lack of “bureaucratic red tape” and expenses for office space and employees that that larger organizations must cover – donations to CAAT will have an immediate and direct impact on the health care needs of the region.