From Crisis to Care
29th November 2024
Rebuilding maternal health services Our partner Wings of Healing are working to restore maternal and child health services after the conflict devastated hospitals and health
Leaving mothers and children without essential care. During the conflict, 85% of health facilities were destroyed, staff were displaced, and maternal deaths became tragically common, rising from 840 deaths per 100,000 births in rural areas to 3,634 per 100,000.
In partnership with Ethiopiaid, our local implementation partner, Wings of Healing, is leading the Restoration of Maternal health Services initiative to rebuild essential healthcare infrastructure in Tigray. This work restores maternal and child health (MCH) services and care by rehabilitating facilities, reopening maternity waiting homes, adding ultrasound services, and equipping delivery rooms. We train midwives, resume antenatal, delivery, postnatal, and child services, and rebuild community trust through education, awareness, and maternal health advocacy.
With modest resources, the project will achieve life-saving outcomes:
We focus on rehabilitation over reconstruction, restoring looted or damaged health centres and maternity waiting homes at a fraction of the cost of building new ones. Equipment is procured in bulk and distributed based on the specific needs of each facility, ensuring cost-effectiveness.
We revitalise existing platforms like the Women’s Development Army and community health extension networks to reach every household. Pregnancy conferences and sensitisation workshops are implemented with minimal cost, often co-hosted by local health authorities, and sustained by the communities themselves.
In rural areas, we deliver ultrasound services using one portable ultrasound machine and a mobile doctor. Reaching over 2,500 pregnant women across 10 health centres in 2025 alone, demonstrating high-impact delivery with limited input.
At Ethiopiaid, we pride ourselves on providing long-term assistance, listening to the communities we are working closely with.
We have partnered with local Ethiopian organisations for over 20 years. Around 80% of the people we are supporting are women and girls.
Our local partners know the context and solutions; we listen and provide appropriate support. Their long-term projects have a lasting and meaningful impact in their communities.
We don’t just respond to crises as they happen, but continue our support after other emergency agencies withdraw.
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Alem, 20, stayed at the maternity waiting home at the newly restored Edegaberhe Health Centre ahead of the birth of her second child. She shared that the experience could not have been more different from that of her first delivery which occurred during the conflict.
After walking five hours to reach a health facility, she found it abandoned and was forced to give birth outside, without medical support. Complications followed as the placenta was retained. In the panic, her family desperately searched for a local midwife – who arrived just in time. The experience left her traumatised and fearful of future pregnancies.
With such limited health services in her area, Alem was anxious about giving birth again. However, when she learned that the health centre was operational again and new maternity waiting rooms were available for expectant mothers, she was relieved.
Alem described the care as exceptional; “It’s like paradise here. We are receiving amazing care, and we can comfortably sleep and engage in discussion with the other mothers. It feels like home.’’
After several days waiting Alem had a safe delivery and gave birth to a beautiful, healthy boy.
Pictured: Alem, with other women staying at the maternity waiting home.
Rebuilding maternal health services Our partner Wings of Healing are working to restore maternal and child health services after the conflict devastated hospitals and health
We raise funds for local Ethiopian charities to transform lives and achieve lasting change.
Our partners know the context and solutions; we listen and provide appropriate support. Growth and development are tracked in local communities using robust monitoring and evaluation. Partnerships continue as long as there’s a clear need and opportunities to make a lasting impact.
Our vision – an Ethiopia in which every person has access to quality education, healthcare and a life of dignity.
Our mission – breaking the cycle of poverty by enabling the poorest and most vulnerable and their communities to live with dignity, to build resilience and achieve real and sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.
