The average life expectancy in Ethiopia is forty years; yet, the ratio of physicians to population remains 1:100,000. As a child growing up in a rural village in Ethiopia, Ingida Asfaw dreamed of becoming a doctor. Carrying his family's hopes and dreams, he traveled to the United States aboard a cargo ship in 1958, arriving at age 16 with little money and only a small suitcase. He attended college, graduated from medical school and became a cardiovascular surgeon. Now 65, Asfaw is chief of cardiovascular surgery at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit. Giving back, in 1999, he helped found the Ethiopian North American Health Professionals Association, a consortium of over 400 doctors, nurses, technicians and therapists that travels to Ethiopia to teach proper medical care, deliver medicine and supplies, and treat those who cannot afford it.
