When the third large hospital built by Menschen für Menschen was inaugurated on 18 October 2003, it was unexpectedly attended by an important guest: Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi. However, he did not only come to thank us for the new hospital.

The head of state declared: “Karlheinz Böhm has been working for over 20 years in many parts of our country in so many different fields, such as improvements in agriculture and health care. He builds schools, wells and irrigation systems and supports our women and children. He helps our people to develop themselves and become independent. We look on him as one of us. Today I would like to make him an honorary citizen of Ethiopia.”

Deeply moved to be the first foreigner to receive this distinction from Ethiopia, Karlheinz Böhm replied: “I do indeed feel like one of you. I will continue to strive with all my might to eliminate poverty in this country. My greatest wish is that the Ethiopian Prime Minister should come to me one day and say: ‘Thank you Karl, I don’t need you any more. We are now able to stand on our own feet.’ But until that day I shall never tire to provide support for self-development. And even after I am gone, my Ethiopian wife Almaz and later our son Nicolas will continue my work.”

When Menschen für Menschen launched a development project with the population of Merhabete in 1988, the highest priority was to bring the catastrophically poor standard of medical care to a reasonable level. Only four medical centres and a ramshackle outpatients’ clinic were available for 120,000 people within a radius of 1,200 km. Menschen für Menschen renovated the clinic, built new medical centres and medical posts and provided them with all the necessary equipment and fittings. Mobile services brought basic medical care to even the most remote villages. But in emergencies, patients still had to be transported 180 km to Addis Ababa to be operated. Karlheinz Böhm decided to build a district hospital in the regional capital of Alem Katema.

At the cornerstone ceremony in 1998 a girl called Enat (English: mother) came up to Karlheinz Böhm. He took her hand and turned to the crowd: “Let us call the hospital Enat Hospital, as a sign of our responsibility to the young generation of this country!” Since then the “Alem Katema Enat Hospital” serves as a medical centre for 400,000 people, far beyond Merhabete. It has two large operating theatres, a mother-child ward, an eye care department, anaesthetic equipment, an ECG, an ultrasound and an X-ray unit, a laboratory and a pharmacy. With 63 beds and an outpatient department a team of 80 medical staff guarantees a comprehensive health service in all critical fields for 100 patients per day.

Help Ethiopia to develop under its own power: Give us your support, for help is better than pity.