Together: Our 2025 Winter Newsletter.
“I hope the stories in this newsletter remind you of the incredible impact we’ve made together, side-by-side, this year, and leave you with a renewed sense of connection and community for 2026.” – Anna Lord, CEO
A huge thank you to all our supporters for continuing to stand by our partners this year. We are so pleased to share these uplifting stories and updates, all possible thanks to the kindness and generosity of the Ethiopiaid community.
Newsletter highlights: find out more from our partners’ projects
Strengthening maternal health
From heartbreak to healing
Tseganesh was in obstructed labour for two excruciating days, until she fell unconscious. The next thing she remembers is waking up in the hospital with a painful vertical wound on her abdomen.
Throughout her pregnancy, Tseganesh had been attending antenatal appointments at the hospital. When she went into labour at her rural home, she begged to be taken to the hospital, but her mother-in-law would not take her. Generations of women before them had given birth at home; she did not believe it was necessary to go.
When it became clear something was very wrong, someone in the village ran to fetch Tseganesh’s father, who rushed her to the hospital. Emergency surgery saved her life, but tragically it was too late to save her baby.
The doctors realised that during the trauma of the obstructed labour, Tseganesh had developed an obstetric fistula. This devastating childbirth injury causes an internal tear or hole between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, leaving women incontinent and in pain.
Tseganesh was referred to our partner Hope of Light, thanks to their outreach work raising awareness of fistula in rural communities. She underwent surgery at Jimma Fistula Centre, and the team supported Tseganesh through her physical and mental recovery, with counselling, care and the gift of a new dress for her return home.
Ethiopiaid's BBC Radio 4 Appeal
We are very excited to share that we will be broadcasting a BBC Radio 4 Appeal, during the week of Christmas. Not only that, but thanks to generous donors, your donations will be matched up to £18,000!
Beloved actor Jenny Agutter, known for her longstanding role in Call the Midwife, will present the appeal on our behalf. She will be sharing the powerful story of how maternal health ambassadors are saving lives in northern Ethiopia.
This is a unique chance to share our life-saving work with people across the UK, at such a meaningful time of year. With your help spreading the word we can reach even more listeners.
Support for women and girls
Appeal update: preventing cervical cancer
We want to say a big thank you to everyone who so generously donated to our autumn cervical cancer prevention appeal.
Cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable, yet in Ethiopia it claims over 5,000 lives each year. For women in rural areas, reaching care is a struggle — many cannot afford transport or accommodation and are left sleeping on hospital floors between treatments.
Which is why prevention is so important.
Wings of Healing’s dedicated team are reaching women who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access screening appointments, as well as providing health education in schools about prevention through the HPV vaccine.
Amsalework, a 36-year-old mum of two, was reached through their cervical cancer health education sessions. Thanks to your support, she was screened and treated for precancerous cells. “I grew up in a poor family in the Seltie region of southern Ethiopia. I moved to Addis Ababa for a better life, but it hasn’t been easy. I support my two children by working as a street vendor with daily challenges. For a long time, screening for asymptomatic conditions was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
Surprisingly, I learned from the health education session how many lives are lost to such a condition. My positive test result could have made me one of them if I hadn’t been screened and treated early. Thank you for bringing the issue to my sight.”
Improving access to education
Sustainable and solar-powered: updates from Assosa School
Tilahun Abegaz, Executive Director at Hope Enterprises, shared news from the school’s farm:
“The farm now supplies fresh, locally grown, and nutritious food directly to our school, significantly improving the health and well-being of our students. This has not only enhanced students’ academic focus and attendance but has also created a model that links food production with education. Encouraged by this success, we are now scaling up the farm to serve the wider community—creating job opportunities, enhancing local food security, and promoting self-sufficiency.”
Some of the crops grown so the children at the school can eat a healthy, varied diet include:
• Bananas – typically expensive in the region, bananas are now a regular staple for the children’s breakfasts.
• Corn (maize) and sorghum
• Soya beans and peppers – the surplus will be distributed to other schools, sharing the benefits.
The school also started beekeeping this year to provide honey for the schoolchildren, with the potential to generate income, strengthening the project’s sustainability.
The school’s new solar energy project will provide clean, reliable energy. The school will no longer have to rely on firewood for its kitchen stoves, saving time spent gathering and chopping firewood and protecting the staff from the smoke.
Solar-powered water pumps will ensure a dependable water supply for the school and irrigate the farm crops, meaning they no longer depend on inconsistent power supplies.
There are still hurdles to overcome: the equipment has been held in Addis Ababa due to instability along the 14-hour drive to Assosa. Once it is safe enough, the team will move quickly to get this pilot project set up.
With huge thanks to Amber Energy’s not-for-profit foundation, Power 2 Africa, for funding this project and sharing their technical expertise.
If your business or community group are interested in supporting our work, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Emergency and recovery
Climate crisis: drought in Afar
Earlier this year, our partner APDA contacted us with an urgent request. A severe drought was having a devastating effect on pastoralist communities. With limited food and water, and no access to medicines, their animals were dying from diseases caused by malnutrition.
For many people in Afar, their herds are their livelihood.
With their local knowledge and practical approach, APDA put together a plan to help as many people as they could, and thanks to our Emergency and Recovery Fund – supported by you – they were able to act immediately.
They are:
• Supplying emergency animal feed to families who have lost almost all their animals
• Distributing animal medicines and providing veterinary support across eight districts
• Extending their reach by training cooperatives of veterinary nurses
Supporting health and welfare
Supporters coming together: children’s palliative care
The launch of paediatric palliative care services in 2026 will mark a pivotal moment in Ethiopia’s healthcare system, where no such service currently exists.
Until now, Hospice Ethiopia has been unable to offer this care due to a lack of specialised training in paediatric end-of-life needs, including appropriate medical dosing, clinical best practices, and psychological support.
Thanks to several generous donations from Ethiopiaid supporters who shared a particular interest in this area of work, two members of the team at Hospice Ethiopia have been able to train and develop skills to meet the unique needs of children and their caregivers in palliative care.
They are working to fill this critical gap by delivering compassionate, holistic care to children with serious illnesses, and their families – ultimately enhancing quality of life, however long, and addressing a long-overlooked area of need.
If you have an interest in a particular area of our work that you would like to fund in this way, please get in touch.
“We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the Ethiopiaid donors for the generous financial support provided to our trainees, making this vital capacity-building initiative possible.
Hospice Ethiopia’s strategic objective of initiating paediatric palliative care services in Ethiopia would not have progressed as it has without this support. Your commitment to improving healthcare and supporting underserved populations is deeply appreciated. Thank you once again for your kind and impactful support.”
Dr. Ephrem Abathun, Executive Director – Hospice Ethiopia
THANK YOU.
By supporting our work, you are an essential part of incredible, life-transforming change.
Download your copy of our 2025 Winter Newsletter in full:
Please note some names and images have been changed to protect the anonymity of the people who have shared their stories with us.
