Ethiopia

Tsigab, 28, is married and has two children: a four-year-old boy and a youngest daughter who is one year and five months old. She lives in a remote rural village in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.Tsigab and her husband earn a living by farming the land around their modest house. They grow maize, sorghum, teff, and other food crops. However, when the harvest is insufficient, the family often struggles to meet their basic needs.During times of drought and food shortages, Tsigab and her husband take on various jobs in the nearby small town to make ends meet. However, finding work is not always easy, and Tsigab sometimes worries about how she will feed her family.Despite all the challenges they face, Tsigab has managed to keep her youngest daughter well-nourished. Part of the reason her daughter is doing so well is that Tsigab participates in a cooking demonstration program at the health post in her village. There, she and other mothers learn best practices about proper nutrition and childcare.

Marenet*, 57, is a mother of six who has suffered from ureterovaginal prolapse (UVP) for over twelve years, a condition that began during the delivery of her last child. Marenet’s family are subsistence farmers living in a remote village in the Tigray region, an area significantly impacted by a conflict that lasted for more than three years. This conflict caused extensive devastation to the region’s health infrastructure and overall health services. The impact of the war is still visible, and recovery will require a long time.To address these problems, Save the Children launched the surge team strategy with financial assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. By deploying highly skilled medical and surgical teams to remote and inaccessible facilities, local people were able to receive life-saving services. These services targeted individuals with low incomes who could not afford health care and other related expenses. Consequently, the community benefited from free health treatments.Marenet’s story highlights the transformative impact of the medical care she received, giving her hope and a renewed sense of vitality.

Azeb*, 30, recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy after receiving fertility treatment from the surge team in her hometown of Tigray. This milestone came after nine failed pregnancies due to miscarriages. Azeb had never thought she would be able to conceive and had suffered marginalization and social ostracism due to long-standing misconceptions associated with miscarriage and infertility in her community.Her baby boy, now four months old, is in good health. She brings him to the facility for his regular monthly checkups and immunizations. We met and talked with Azeb during one of her visits to the health center for her child’s follow-up appointment. During the visit, she received advice on how to care for her baby and other health messages. Her baby also received his monthly vaccines, which protect him from infectious diseases.

The Save the Children Immunisation Accelerator, backed by GSK, has selected two standout projects to improve child vaccination rates in Nigeria and Ethiopia, where millions of children remain unvaccinated.Both projects were chosen from 120 submissions and will receive $100,000 in support. These innovations aim to transform immunization outcomes and are part of a broader mission to ensure no child suffers from preventable diseases.

Developed by Save the Children and Hawassa University College of Medicine & Health Sciences (HUCMHS), the easy-to-use screening tools are colour-coded and include a laminated card and a plastic tool with a 90-degree “heel holder” to guide where to place a baby’s heel for the measurement.