Purpose

The purpose of the Jimma UTIHP program is to reach out to our colleagues in the developing world in order to bilaterally share our experiences in medicine. In this way we can we attempt to use our comparatively enormous resources at U of T to reduce some of the inequalities between the ways that medicine is practised in Canada and in Ethiopia. We can also build contacts and friends that will help us to work closer and better with our colleagues in the developing world in our future medical careers.

This is a program based on solidarity – solidarity within the health care profession regardless of national borders.

U of T has a strong relationship with Ethiopia and our students have been travelling to Jimma and Addis for some decades now, and indeed, the the project at Jimma is the longest running continuous project site for the MAA summer scholarship. In the past, the project has undergone activities such as a scholarship program which brought an Ethiopian medical student to Canada for an elective, essay contests, fundraising, speakers series, and advocacy work.