Tene Briut Organization for Health Care Promotion

Tene Briut (Tene = health in Amharic, Briut = health in Hebrew) is the only national community-based outreach organization in Israel dedicated to promoting the health of the Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel. It is recognized as the authentic and authoritative ‘voice’ of the Ethiopian immigrant community in Israel on health matters. Established in 1999 with the purpose of serving the unique cultural and social needs of the Ehiopian immigrants in Israel, its mission and activities are consistently based on the importance of respecting the Ethiopian immigrants’ traditions regarding their culture and health beliefs. Tene Briut’s activities which target the Ethiopian community directly include: • Health-promotion workshops in community settings ~ 4730 participants per year • Healthy cooking workshops –around 150 participants in 9 groups, per year • Widely popular (and the only) radio program on health in Amharic for the National Radio broadcast Authority – twice a month • Diabetes patient groups for the Ethiopian community which has a higher incidence of this chronic disease than any other population in Israel ~ 5 groups per year • Health fairs ~ 1180 participants in 8 day events per year • “The Voice for Health” – an innovative phone-based medical interpretation service. This service provides language and cultural mediators between medical personnel and Ethiopian patients via a dedicated telephone network, ~5300 interpretation calls per year. • "Crisis Hotline" provides an immediate first aid for people suffering physical and mental distress who cannot find their way to accessing treatment or institutional care. This service empower people in distress to seek help and treatment from available sources, and encourage them to take responsibility for improving their quality of life, ~500 treatment calls per year.