The Federal Ministry of Health has recognized Hamlin College of Midwives (HCM) as a Model College in the Midwifery Education in Ethiopia. The College has an uninterrupted history of 100% pass of its graduates in the National Midwife Licensing Examination, which ensures that any midwife graduate in Ethiopia has achieved at least a common standard of medical knowledge and clinical skills competencies.
“Being recognized is exciting and provides validation that our work is valuable and moving us in the right direction,” said Ato Zelalem Belete, Dean of the College, while congratulating all the Hamlin’s community for the success and recognition.
The College, under the umbrella of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, commenced its program in 2007, aiming to produce well qualified and clinically competent midwives who are be able to improve options for a safe delivery for women in rural areas. It follows its own unique way of selecting and training female students from rural areas of Ethiopia, and has succeeded so much so in the process and reached to the extent of developing the ‘Hamlin Model of Teaching and Learning’.
“Young girls, who have genuine interest in maternal health and have successfully completed grade 12, are selected and offered scholarship to train at the College and return to their home rural communities to offer services after completing the 4-year-curriculum in midwifery,” said Ato Ababu Yassin, Lecturer and Deployment Head at the College. “The midwife graduates are supported in the government system by a supply chain for medications and necessary materials,” he added.
Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA), which assesses and evaluates the quality of higher education in Ethiopia, also published in its 2013 Report that Hamlin College of Midwives has been contributing immensely to the health sector by offering a quality program aiming at alleviating the chronic shortage of midwives in the rural parts of Ethiopia.
