Kuriftu Ethiopian Cultural Village featuring Ethiopia’s first water park was inaugurated yesterday, August 31. The Cultural Village is a new tourism destination at Bishoftu in a bid to promote Ethiopian culture, art and cuisine. The project was completed in two and half years in spite of the hard currency shortage.
Built on over 70,000sqm of land, Kuriftu Cultural Village has 120 shops, a water park, wine and beer hall, cultural restaurant and spa.
“As part of encouraging local business, Ethiopian products are showcased and made available for visitors in all shops,” said Tadios Getachew, owner of Kuriftu Resorts and Spas.
There is something for everyone at the water park; a wave pool, two water houses, boomerang slide, spiral slide with famous Fekat circus as a performance center that accommodates 400 participants. The Cultural Village is an expansion made adjacent to the Kuriftu resort that sits on 30,000sqm.
“The Kuriftu water park is really a tourist destination as it suited to hold facilities for all age levels,” Michael Tesfaye, Marketing Director of Boston Partners said.
The village will provide visitors with an experience of custom, practices, rituals, dances, folklore, and arts. The completion of the cultural village will create 1,000 jobs.
Owned by Boston Partners, the company has more than 10 operational businesses in places like Bahir Dar, Semera, Langano, Adama and Djibouti.
“We want to be a chain of resorts, spas and restaurants all over Africa,” Tadios adds.
Cultural village ready for business at Bishoftu
Regional states unhappy with new education policy
Tigray regional state says it is not happy with the new educational road map that will be rolled out next Ethiopian academic year because they say it threatens the Federal System and the constitution.
The new educational road map will reintroduce a 6-2-4 system next year replacing the 8-2-2 system introduced some 20 years ago.
Based on a report, the Tigray region rejected the recommendation from the Ministry of Education to teach students Amharic which is the Federal government’s working language.
“We will not teach Amharic from grade one on as it creates confusion with the students in differentiating the sounds because both Amharic and Tigrigna language use the same letters,” said Bahita W/Michael, Head of Tigray Education Bureau.
“The issue of teaching languages is subjected to the respective regional states but the road map recommends teaching Amharic which is the federal language from grade one on, adding that the road map is just a recommendation,” the Ministry of Education said.
Currently Amharic learning starts in third grade in Tigray and in fifth grade in Oromia and the education road map allows students to be taught in their mother tongue between grade 1-8.
Last week, Shimeles Abdissa, President of Oromia Regional State also expressed his discontent with the proposed education road map to teach the Amharic language from grade one on.
“No negotiation over the Oromo language, the recommendation for students to take the Federal working language as a subject matter in school is just ridiculous” Shimeles said.
However, the educational road map is under discussion in the Somali regional state in the presence of all stakeholders to have more input.
For Mustafa Mohammed Omar, President of Somalia Regional State, the recommendation to teach Amharic as one subject matter in classes is an added advantage, not a liability and it does not go against one’s own identity rather creates a common understanding.
One of the architects of the new education road map Professor Tirusew Tefera says there are about 30 recommendations studied by the team and it all depends on the interest of the regions.
Africa Union develops common position for climate change summit
The conference on climate change and development in Africa was held for the 8th time at the African Union from August 28 to 30, 2019 in a bid to develop a common African position and concern about the upcoming UN climate action summit during September 23, 2019 in New York.
It will attract policy makers, representatives from civil society organizations academia and development partners from the member states of the African Union (AU) to attend the eighth Conference on Climate Change and Development with the theme: ‘Stepping up climate action for a resilient Africa – a race we can and must win’.
Many African countries have submitted ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions to Climate Action – NDCs – that shows their strong commitments to tackle climate change, said Frehiwot Woldehanna, State Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy.
He also underscored Ethiopia’s effort for clean energy and a pioneer country to submit its NDC and sign the Paris Agreement in addition to co chairing one of the nine action areas, which is the energy transition with Denmark.
Africa contributes the least to global emissions but is already suffering the most adverse impacts from climate change. The Continent contributes under 6 percent of carbon emissions, which is only 0.8 tons per year, which is below the global mean of 5 tons. However the continent suffers more.
To slow down the impact of climate change, identifying the need for an estimated USD 3.5 – 4 trillion of investment by 2030 To support African countries adapt to climate change, AfDB has committed to ensuring that at least 40 percent of its project approvals are tagged as climate finance by 2020, with equal proportions for adaptation and mitigation. The bank also seeks to mainstream climate change and green growth initiatives into all investments by next year.
Turkey’s Acibadem reaches out to Ethiopian patients
Istanbul, Turkey
The Turkish giant hospital Acibadem Healthcare Group is working to treat more Ethiopian patients who want to travel abroad for medical services. The group can treat cancer, heart problems, vitro fertilization, organ trans¬plantation (liver, kidney, bone marrow) and spine problems.
The group which has made an agreement with Ethiopian Airlines to transport patients to Istanbul with a fair price package has also made a contact with Ethiopian hospitals to work together.
Currently nearly 50 Ethiopian patients go to Istanbul to get medical service at Acibadem every year.
Imane Yuce, Communication Specialist of international marketing at the hospital told Capital “some disease or organ failure do need a specialized hospital to treat them. We have seen that many Ethiopian people need the service we provide and some go to Thailand and we need to be part of these services. The great advantage for this is both Turkish Airline and Ethiopian Airlines have a direct flight from Addis to Istanbul which is very easy to get the patients and we are working on it but it is not in the level that we are expected and we will do much more to enhance it.”
The hospital which has a university in Istanbul is also considering to give scholarships for some Ethiopian students in medical health care education.
Acibadem currently operates 21 hospitals and 16 clinics in four countries. Centers of Excellence throughout the network include 11 Cancer Centers (surgical, radiotherapy, chemotherapy), 16 Heart Care Centers (pediatric and adult cardiology and cardiac surgery), 13 In Vitro Fertilization Centers (Infertility – IVF), 10 Organ Trans¬plantation Centers (liver, kidney, bone marrow), nine Spine Centers, one Sports Medicine Center and six Robotic Surgery the group is operating with 23,000 employees. Comprising 21 hospitals and 16 medical centers, Acibadem has become the world’s second largest Healthcare Chain with this agreement under the auspices of IHH Healthcare Berhad.
Acibadem Healthcare Group grew by 32% and made a turnover of TL 4.3 billion in 2018.
The group has hospitals across Europe as well, serving patients in Iraq, Bulgaria, Macedonia and the Netherlands. Moreover, the group seeks to increase the volume of health tourism.
