The foregoing statement was made by Ambassador Girma Birru, Special Envoy and Ambassador Extra-ordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the US, in an engaging meeting he held with Mr.Jeffrey Rivest, President and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical Center/UMMC/ and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center leadership in the premises of the Institute in Baltimore city last Wednesday, November 23, 2011 leading an entourage of high-level Ethiopian embassy officials from the Chancery in Washington DC.

Ambassador Girma eloquently expressed Ethiopia's desire to form a strong bondage between the University of Maryland Medical Center's /UMMC/ R Cowley Shock Trauma Center with the focused vision and interest of extracting the solid experience of the center in the aforementioned field towards an ultimate goal of realizing a similar center in Ethiopia.

Mr. Jeffrey Rivest, President and CEO of UMMC, and Mr. John Spearman, Senior Vice President, Global Health Initiatives, UMMC on their part expressed optimism to share the valued experience towards strengthening the desired partnership with their Ethiopian counterpart.

In a bid to impress the Ethiopian delegation with hands-on experience pertaining to the much avowed activities carried by the Center, the UMMC leadership facilitated a guided-tour of the Center.

The initial step for such a bond was premiered by Mr. Kebede Tadesse, Executive Director of Hope for All International, a US based NGO engaged in global partnership for access to clean water, health education and environmental protection who initiated the liaison of the twinning project.

R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center serves as the core resource to the State of Maryland's Emergency Medical Services that receives, stabilizes and treats those, whose lives are threatened by severe multi-system injury, severe life-threatening injury, acute complex orthopaedic injury, spinal cord and column injuries, brain injury and facial trauma, it was learnt.