06/09/2026
Giving Back to the Community Where My Medical Journey Began
Some projects are about building infrastructure. Others are about building a legacy.
For me, this one is deeply personal.
Liyana Universal Community Services Foundation has launched its first major community health project in Dara Woreda, Sidama Region—a two-year, ETB 70 million initiative focused on preventing, detecting and treating the rapidly growing burden of non-communicable diseases, particularly hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
The project includes the construction of a Comprehensive Health Post and a broader program of capacity building for health facilities and schools, with the goal of creating a sustainable model for community health improvement.
What makes this project particularly meaningful to me is where it is taking place.
Twenty-five years ago, I served this community as a young, newly graduated physician. It was here that I gained a deeper understanding of the health challenges facing our communities, experienced their extraordinary warmth and generosity, and learned many lessons that have shaped my professional and personal journey.
Today, returning to the same community—not only as a physician, but as someone able to help mobilize institutional resources for sustainable development—is a profoundly rewarding experience.
This initiative also represents an important principle of how we envision the role of business in society.
Under the Liyana Healthcare Group, our hospitals and other institutions contribute 2% of daily revenues and 10% of annual profit distributions to the Foundation. This creates a mechanism through which the success of our healthcare businesses can continuously contribute to the health and development of the communities we serve.
Our ambition goes beyond Dara.
We are developing additional resource-mobilization strategies to support similar initiatives in Sidama, Oromia, Amhara, Central Ethiopia and Addis Ababa, with the long-term vision of creating scalable and sustainable community health programs.
I am deeply grateful to the leadership of the Sidama Regional State Health and Finance Bureaus, the Southern Sidama Zone Administration, the Dara Woreda Administration and sector offices, community elders and representatives, and the Board and leadership of Liyana Universal Community Services Foundation for their cooperation and commitment.
'Serving humanity. Building the future '
Dr. Girma Ababi
Medical Information
