In 2019, with the help of employees and volunteers, HAF organized nurses and doctors to provide complete physical checkups for HAF recipients (elders). That took long time to coordinate and it took over 2 months to do physical checkups for 70 elders.

Most of the recipients were not able to leave their homes so transportation arrangement had to be made for nurses and doctors to do house visits (as image above shows). The cost was great, volunteer hours were greater than anticipated. Due to these facts, the same service was not provided in 2020 and 2021. But we were still searching for ways to provide the much-needed medical help to our elders. Finally, toward the end of 2021, we found a better solution.

The Ethiopian government introduced Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) almost 10 years ago and the pilot projects were launched in 2012 in much populated districts. It took few years to get traction and for people to trust the system and its benefits. Now it became available almost everywhere in Ethiopia, including Harar. HAF would like to enroll all existing recipients (elders) in this program so that can receive:

• Routine checkups with no limitation
• Hospital visits as much as needed
• Treatment and prescription drugs
• Even referral to bigger and care specific hospitals outside of Harar
• It also covers the registration fee which is required for every hospital visit.

In order to enroll in CBHI program, every district has its own pricing and for Harar, as of Sep. 2021, it was 570.00 Ethiopian Birr ($15) for one year, per person.

Documents required to enrol:

• Government issued ID (copy to be submitted with application)
• 2 government ID size pictures
• One page application with personal details

HAF employees went to each and every recipient (elder), in Harar, and explained the benefit of enrolling in CBHI program. Most of the elders are suffering from basic medical challenges/issues due to lack of money to pay for treatment or purchase medication. Every hospital visit has registration fee, urine test fee, blood test fee and so on. HAF recipients do not even have enough money for food let alone hospital visits and medications.

As of December 2021, HAF enrolled 200 recipients, in Harar,  into CBHI program.

We were informed by the registration office, it would take 4 – 8 weeks for recipients to get their CBHI card, since it will be made in Addis Ababa and shipped back to Harar. This card will be renewable every year to extend the service provided.