For over 25 years, Dr. Rick Hodes has lived and worked in Ethiopia as the Medical Director for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Over the years, he has been in charge of the health of 60,000 Ethiopian Jews returning to Israel, ministering to the critically ill in refugee camps, serving two self-started medical clinics, administering medicine on the fly in small villages, and working with kids at Mother Teresa’s Mission- a home for the sick and destitute. He now primarily works with three “orphan diseases”: heart disease, spine disease, and cancer. His work in Ethiopia has led him to adopt five children, treat 1047 spinal patients, 460 heart patients, and 50 cancer patients. He has treated more than 1500 patients, and saved tens of thousands of lives through his public health word, adoptions, surgeries, and medical care.
