The state's own report on community health: 19 new mediators in the HMOs — and three Amharic interpreters in the entire information line

In January 2026 the Prime Minister's Office published a summary report of the government programme for the integration of Ethiopian-Israelis covering 2023–2024. It is a public government document, and it states exactly what the state undertook to do on health and what it reports actually happened.

The number to start from

One row in the Health Ministry's target table explains a great deal about what you experience at the clinic and the hospital:

> The "Kol HaBriut" information line has roughly 3 Amharic interpreters and 2 Tigrinya interpreters.

Three. That is the reported staffing of the Health Ministry's national information line, as of the 2024 reporting. The same table reports that 19 mediators were added at the health funds, and that in 2025 a support tender was published to recruit more.

What else the health chapter says

The report lists the ministry's 2024 programmes and how far each was delivered:

Delivered beyond plan: physical activity and healthy lifestyle promotion; preparation for absorption of new immigrants; mental-health accompaniment and addiction-prevention programmes.
Delivered in full: hospital mediation; the "Kol HaBriut" information line.
Partly delivered: HIV prevention and treatment; tuberculosis prevention and treatment; scholarships for psychology students; women's and girls' health; the suicide-prevention programme.

The report explains the shortfalls itself: "a delay in the transfer of budgets from the programme headquarters, and postponement of some activities to 2025". The BCG vaccination campaign, for instance, slipped to 2025 because the 2024 budget arrived late.

Note the row "scholarships for psychology students", delivered only in part. That is the programme meant to produce, a decade from now, the Amharic-speaking psychologists who do not exist today.

What the ministry says it is building now

Per the report, an advisory committee to the Health Ministry operated during 2023–2024, established by the director-general in 2023, with a dedicated programme lead appointed in 2024. The committee set targets for a comprehensive programme that forms the basis of the 2024–2026 work plan:

a language-access and rights-realisation array, including the mediator corps;
reducing chronic disease;
adapting mental-health content and reducing hospitalisations;
women's health, with an emphasis on reducing unwanted pregnancy terminations and raising breast-cancer awareness;
stroke (CVA) detection and an adapted rehabilitation programme;
building a model for increasing trust between the community and the health system.

That last target is an admission, in the language of a government document, that the problem is not only language.

The report states the Health Ministry's programme budget was fully utilised (100%) in 2024, and that the ministry returned in 2024 to being part of Government Decision 787 with 20 dedicated programmes, after running internal programmes outside the decision in 2023.

What this means for you tomorrow morning

A mediator at your health fund is a right, not a favour. If your fund has a cultural mediator, you can ask for them to be present. If not, you can ask the staff to use the Health Ministry's interpretation centre. We set out exactly how, and what to say when booking, in our language-access guide for mental health.
A request in writing is worth more than one made aloud. An SMS or a message in your fund's app leaves a record.
BRCA 1,2 screening entered the basket, and per the report, information sheets were produced in Amharic and the ministry issued guidance to the health funds to encourage uptake.

What the report does not say

The report reports outputs — how many mediators, how many programmes, how much budget. It does not report how many patients asked for an interpreter and got one, nor how many asked and did not. The programme headquarters itself writes that it needs to move "from tracking inputs (number of participants, budget sums) to measuring outcomes and actual impact". Until that happens, the only number you can really check is what happened in your own appointment.

Source: Prime Minister's Office — The government programme for the integration of Ethiopian-Israelis, activity summary report 2023–2024, January 2026 · verified September 2026.

Sources

Prime Minister's Office, Headquarters for the Integration of Ethiopian-Israelis — "The government programme for the integration of Ethiopian-Israelis: activity summary report 2023–2024", January 2026 — "Ministry of Health" chapter, pp. 42–44
Our language-access guide for mental health
The Tedros health hub