Alemayehu Haddis

My name is Alemayehu Haddis borne in Estie, Gondar on 7th of September 1962. I started my job as Sanitarian after I completed my diploma program at Gondar College of medical sciences (Now Gondar University).

At that time, there was no possibility for me to enter higher education in Ethiopia due to the absence of institutes or universities offering environmental science. So I went to work for 12 years at the diploma level, and these were years of great challenge in addressing the water supply and sanitation needs of the rural Ethiopian community I was responsible for. There was nobody to consult and there was no access to information.

New hope opened for me when I joined a newly established Environmental Health School at the then Jimma Institute of Health Sciences (now Jimma University) in 1995. Upon successful completion, I was employed there at as a graduate assistant. At this level I was responsible to conduct class room teaching, as well as to take students out and demonstrate practical field training and community service in water and sanitation.

My daily observation, however, was that the service sector could not bring much change in water and sanitation, and hence neither in health promotion programs. In some instances things were getting worse, and the universities were still not able to reinforce these programs by doing action oriented research and experimenting with technology alternatives. My own capacity to assist and influence program directions still remained limited.

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