APDA is dedicated to ending harmful practices, including female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage and the lack of rights for women in marriage. Their Women Extension Workers are trusted role models for girls. Through their outreach work, they support women and girls in their communities, visiting and speaking to girls and listening to their daily challenges and difficulties. They also work alongside religious leaders who, as respected authorities, can lead by example to bring an end to harmful practices.
APDA also respond quickly in times of conflict, drought and other emergencies, saving lives by providing food, water, shelter, medicine and vaccinations. They help protect pastoralist families’ livelihoods, with emergency food for livestock and veterinary care. In areas affected by the conflict, they are working to combat food insecurity by forming local cooperatives to grow and sell food, and helping women who lost their livelihoods to rebuild their businesses.
APIDO works to prevent and treat podoconiosis (podo), a debilitating condition caused by barefoot exposure to irritant minerals in the soil, resulting in the painful swelling of the feet and legs. APIDO work within communities, educating people on prevention, treatment, self-care and providing custom-made shoes, so that people living with the impact of podoconiosis can manage their symptoms, continue their education, return to work, and participate in their communities once again. They also raise awareness of prevention and train healthcare professionals to help eradicate podoconiosis altogether.
Atsede Clinic’s ‘Midwives on the Move’ project provides home visits to pregnant women living in the mountainous terrain of the Gurage Zone – where many of the women they work with either aren’t able to travel to health facilities for antenatal appointments, or do not think they are important enough. Alongside the antenatal, delivery and postnatal care they provide, they are working to change attitudes in communities, emphasising the importance of maternal health care and empowering women to make informed decisions about their own health. Atsede’s Maternity Clinic was founded by 2019’s International Midwife of the Year, Atsede Kidane, and British midwife Indie McDowell.
“Together for an inclusive society” – Cheshire Services is working towards a future where all people living with a disability in Ethiopia can access healthcare, education and support. Their Menagesha Rehabilitation Centre in the Oromia region provides both resident children and outpatients with surgery, physiotherapy and custom-fitted prosthetic limbs and mobility aids. For children living in more remote areas, Cheshire Services runs a mobile outreach service. Reed House Paediatric Rehabilitation Centre in Addis Ababa welcomes children with disabilities for physiotherapy sessions and provides support for their families. Through their Sustainable Livelihoods Project, they support families with a parent or child living with a disability with agricultural and basic business skills training, so they are able to support themselves. They also run wider gender and disability awareness training within communities, with a focus on social inclusion, especially for mothers of children with disabilities.
The Hamlin Fistula Midwifery College aims to address the shortage of midwives across Ethiopia, and to accomplish their founder Dr Catherine Hamlin’s dream of “a midwife in every village”. The college offers a BSc degree in midwifery and MSc degree in clinical midwifery. Upon graduation each midwife is posted to rural health centres, to provide quality maternal health services to thousands of women – ensuring safer births and preventing injuries like obstetric fistula.
Healing Hands of Joy’s mission is to see obstetric fistula eliminated from Ethiopia. They work to prevent this devastating childbirth injury, to find women with fistula and refer them for treatment, and to rehabilitate women who are recovering, helping them reintegrate in their community. Through their Safe Motherhood Ambassador programme, women who have been cured return to their communities to identify new cases of fistula and educate expectant mothers on safe delivery. HHOJ also works on a wider community level, hosting workshops, training religious leaders, holding film screenings and educating men and women, to raise awareness and change attitudes towards this socially-isolating condition.
Hope Enterprises’ Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) equips young people from disadvantaged backgrounds across Addis Ababa with valuable practical and technical skills and helps them access wider employment opportunities. They offer courses in electronics, auto mechanics, hospitality and tailoring, adapting their curriculum based on job availability. Learning skills which are in high demand by employers means young people can more easily find jobs after graduation, earn a reliable income to support themselves and their families and confidently contribute to their communities.
Young people with limited opportunities are able to access higher education through HEUC’s sponsorship programme. Bursaries are provided for the poorest students, removing many of the practical barriers to education and enabling them to gain qualifications that will lead to professional employment.
Hope of Light provides obstetric fistula treatment at 3 Fistula Centres in Gondar, Jimma and Assela. The organisation was founded by Dr Ambaye WoldeMichael, a renowned fistula surgeon, who was originally trained by Dr Catherine Hamlin. HOL provides medical supplies for fistula care, trains doctors in fistula surgery, raises awareness of fistula with health professionals and her team provides care and support for the women they treat through pre- and post-operative counselling.
Hospice Ethiopia is the only organisation in Ethiopia providing community-based palliative care for people who are terminally ill. Their project provides in-home care, including pain management and counselling for patients, and grief support and financial assistance for family members. The organisation also works to create greater awareness about palliative care – something not widely known about – by training health professionals in pain assessment and control, encouraging referrals to hospice care from general health clinics, and undertaking and sharing research in palliative care across Ethiopia.
Nexus Ethiopia works primarily with women and children, through three core pillars: humanitarian, development and peace building. They are supporting women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Tigray, through business skills training, counselling and referral to specialised care.
N4ED supports young women and their children in Addis Ababa who are living below the poverty line and vulnerable to malnutrition. By providing the skills and money to set up small businesses with other mothers, women are economically and socially empowered, and household income ensures children are well fed and can go on to learn – investing in future generations.
SCWOP provide a lifeline for older people and the children in their care. Based in Addis Ababa, SCWOP provides a basic monthly pension to help cover essentials such as food, clothes and medical bills. They also provide extra support for those who are caring for orphaned grandchildren, so they can continue their education.
Stigma surrounding menstruation means that many girls in Ethiopia are ashamed to ask for help, and often drop out of school. Based in Addis Ababa, Studio Samuel’s project supports girls to stay in school by distributing free reusable period packs, and through offering extra-curricular after school courses in IT and business skills, sewing, life skills and creative arts. Studio Samuel helps girls continue their education and develop important skills for future employment. Support is also given to access healthcare, tutoring and scholarships that they otherwise would miss out on. Some of the girls also go on to lead presentations at other schools on how to use the sanitary kits, encouraging both girls and boys to break the taboo.
Wings of Healing provide free screening and treatment of cervical cancer. In Ethiopia, where most cervical cancer cases are detected late and treatment is often unaffordable, this work is saving lives. Their incluse programme also reaches women from poorer backgrounds who struggle to access healthcare. Looking forward, they aim to continue expanding their services, particularly to reach women living with HIV and ultimately prevent cervical cancer.
Wings of Healing are also providing vital medical care by re-equipping health centres damaged in conflict, restoring Maternal and Child Health Services, and running emergency medical clinics in camps for displaced people. They are also treating pregnant women, new mothers and children who are living in displacement camps and have acute malnutrition.
The first time Kalkidan Abera met with Hospice Ethiopia, she felt as though angels had come to help her…
We are working with three main partners to ensure conflict-affected people get what they need as quickly as our partners can deliver it…
For the hundreds of women who visit Healing Hands of Joy after sustaining fistula injuries, the centres are a special place, full of warmth and love…
Whether the event you’re planning is big or small, here’s all the info you need.
Your regular gifts are so important to us and so simple to set up.
A legacy gift has the power to transform lives in Ethiopia, and with it, create lasting change in a community.
Two decades ago, the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa was the only place where fistula patients could be treated. Today, not only can patients access the treatment they need through six fistula centres across Ethiopia, but they can also access complete physical and social rehabilitation facilities. Hamlin’s College of Midwives actively recruits and trains new midwives and then deploys them back to their own rural communities to provide maternal healthcare and support in the regions they’re needed most.
