this

Ethiopia

There is a land of sailing ships,  a land beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends its envoys by the Nile, journeying on the waters in vessels of the reed.  Go swift messengers, go to a people tall and smooth skinned, to a people dreaded near and far, a nation whose land is scoured by rivers.

Isaiah 18:1-2

In cooperation with the Ethiopian Children's Heart Fund (ECHF) and Rick Hodes MD, a medical missionary to Ethiopia, a number of young adults with  rheumatic heart disease, underwent free open heart surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, MA.  The ECHF has established relationships with other humanitarian NGO's, including Children's Heart Link, Healing the Children Midwest, and Save a Child's Heart from Israel. Children's Heart Link has a long established relationship with Ethiopia.  Many patients and health care personnel have gone to Minneapolis for free surgery and training.  Hopefully, the ECHF, under the leadership of Cardiologist Belay Abegaz MD (third from left in photo below) will realize the dream of having a comprehensive  cardiac care center with diagnostic, interventional, and open heart surgery capability.
Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule, one exception being the Italian occupation of 1936-41. In 1974 a military junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally toppled by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), in 1991. A constitution was adopted in 1994 and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A two and a half year border war with Eritrea that ended with a peace treaty on 12 December 2000 has strengthened the ruling coalition, but has hurt the nation's economy.
Location: Eastern Africa, west of Somalia
Population: 65,891,874
8 00 N, 38 00 E
Area: total:  1,127,127 sq km
land:  1,119,683 sq km
water:  7,444 sq km
slightly less than twice the size of Texas
Climate: tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation
Terrain: high plateau with central mountain range divided by Great Rift Valley
Elevation: lowest point:  Denakil Depression -125 m
highest point:  Ras Dejen 4,620 m
Natural resources: small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas, hydropower