In remote areas where health facilities are scarce, trained Traditional Birth Attendants bridge the gap between home and hospital. They provide basic antenatal checks, recognise danger signs, encourage facility-based delivery where possible and help women reach skilled care before labour becomes life-threatening.

High orphan rates, unequal access to schooling and deep poverty create dangerous conditions in which child trafficking thrives. The solution must go beyond reuniting trafficked children with their families and tackle the root causes of poverty that traffickers exploit.

Former fistula patients are trained as Safe Motherhood Ambassadors, drawing on their lived experience to identify hidden cases and connect women with treatment. They also teach about safe pregnancy and childbirth, speak at pregnant women’s conferences and community gatherings, and help break the silence and stigma surrounding fistula.

Specialist hospitals provide free, high-quality surgery for women living with obstetric fistula, often after years in isolation. Treatment includes transport, surgery and comprehensive pre- and post-operative care, along with counselling and basic physiotherapy, so women can heal physically and begin to rebuild their confidence.

With hospice and palliative care still emerging in much of Ethiopia, many people with terminal illness face their final days in pain and isolation. No person should experience this. Everyone should have the dignity of medical care, pain relief, counselling and support at the end of life.

Changing outcomes means changing beliefs. Community workshops, pregnant women's conferences, school outreach and radio messages promote the importance of antenatal care and break down taboos behind fistula. Over time, this builds demand for safer choices for mothers and babies.