Stories

We work in villages, the center of Ethiopian life, where life stories are rewritten each day with new hope and health. By supporting our CBRH project, your story becomes part of theirs.

• Mother:  Enjoying greater respect, economic power, and physical health
• Daughter:  Regaining her youth; reaching for her future
• Father:  Supporting a fuller, more productive life for his family
• Village:  Achieving new wealth and stability; rebuilding community
• Doctor:  Saving more lives thanks to education and prevention in the village
• EECMY:   Inspiring changes that renew village health, traditions, economies

Mother The center of her family's stability and health, Hiruth eagerly embraced CBRH family planning services to space her last two children and ensure better opportunities for her older four. Unburdened from repeated pregnancy and grueling labor, she has become a CBRH agent: respected in the village for her literacy and leadership; able to send all her children to school; economically secure. [back to top]

Daughter Yeshi shines with an eight-year-old girl's curiosity. She is excited about attending school and the future it allows her to imagine. Her workload is lighter since her family stopped growing; her reproductive health and safety are protected since her village elders rejected FGM. The CBRH program has raised her personal status today and her hopes for prosperity tomorrow. [back to top]

Father To provide the best care for his wife and five children, Tewdros participates in all decisions about their education and health, especially family planning. CBRH opened his eyes to the benefits of gender equity: greater economic stability, productivity, and respect for both his girls and boys. Seeing his 14-year-old daughter off to another village for secondary school—rather than marriage—is now a point of pride. [back to top]

Village Ever since it chose its own CBRH-trained volunteer health agent, the village in Hadiya has shown new signs of life: better nutrition; fewer cases of diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia; the end of crippling FGM practices. Readily available contraceptives, medical supplies, and health education from CBRH have started to reverse years of decline. Its population now under control and the village is thriving again, moving beyond sheer survival to wealth. [back to top]

Doctor Dr. Mengistu, a 26-year-old orthopedist, works around the clock treating all cases at the Hosanna hospital—from heart surgeries to failed backstreet abortions. Struggling against the lack of drugs, equipment, and even the most basic supplies, he is grateful for the CBRH program's gains. Healthier village women with contraception, prenatal care, and fewer injuries from FGM make him hopeful for a new generation with less human suffering. [back to top]

EECMY The only Ethiopian church providing family planning services, EECMY fights for reproductive justice and public health. In six years, its CBRH program has grown from 300 to 1,200 villages served, with contraceptive use skyrocketing from 8% to 25%. From the pulpit and in the field, EECMY is also using its moral authority to advocate for the end of harmful traditional practices, like early marriage and FGM, that keep villages trapped in a cycle of illness and poverty. [back to top]