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So far developmaji has created 11 blog entries.

Thank you donors – Video

2024-01-24T18:54:55+00:00

Maji Development Coalition (MDC) is a small but mighty nonprofit. We are bringing safe water, solar power and women's development to a remote corner of rural Ethiopia. " We've brought solar lighting and phone charging to almost a 1,000 homes that were dark when the sun went down. We provided solar and gravity-fed safe water systems to almost 4,000 people. We solarized a hospital serving a population of 60,000 so it could open. Women's self-help groups are forming and starting to earn money for the participants. Our Ethiopian water engineer exclaimed, "You are the answer to many mothers' prayers!" In this video, [...]

Thank you donors – Video2024-01-24T18:54:55+00:00

October Update – Hooray for Clean Water!

2024-01-08T22:55:17+00:00

Safe Water—For the First Time Ever! In our culture, things change. A new cell phone comes out every eighteen months; a new, slimmer laptop makes the news; a new pedometer that also tracks our sleep health is all the rage. Fashions change faster than we can wear out our clothes. Stores and restaurants open and close all around us. It’s hard for us to imagine living a life that looks just like our grandmother and grandfather’s lives. It’s hard for us to fathom that the 400 families in the rural communities of Siski and Adikas, down the mountainside from Maji, Have [...]

October Update – Hooray for Clean Water!2024-01-08T22:55:17+00:00

August Update

2024-01-08T22:55:19+00:00

Ato Markos reported from rural Maji District this week. At the end of May, work actually began, and this week the crew unspooled pipe and ran it down the hillside to waiting communities. Markos texted, “The people cheered with joy!” I’m going to give you a photo-rich report of the wonderful and shocking progress that the construction crew, led by Ato Markos (MDC Program Manager) and Wzt Helen (District Water Engineer), accomplished in the last three months. But first, let me say that this only happened because Ato Markos pushed and pushed thanklessly behind the scenes for two years, without any [...]

August Update2024-01-08T22:55:19+00:00

Update: Siski and Adikas Clean Water Project

2024-03-08T12:51:54+00:00

Fifty percent of our global citizens and neighbors don't have access to clean water. What a shocking fact that is! This number includes most of the population of the rural Maji District. You may remember that one of MDC's earliest interventions was that we replaced the burnt-out pump at the Maji Town well. We followed up with a solar array to replace the dirty, expensive, and broken-down diesel pump. This returned about 3500 men, women, and children to drinking clean well water, instead of having to visit the trampled springs outside of town. Two years later, our project manager, Ato Markos, [...]

Update: Siski and Adikas Clean Water Project2024-03-08T12:51:54+00:00

Book Chat Interview with Caroline Kurtz

2024-01-08T22:55:21+00:00

Caroline was recently interviewed for Book Chat on the Cowlitz County, Washington station KLTV. Alan Rose, a great interviewer, got Caroline talking about her unusual childhood as an Oregonian in Africa, and about the writing of her books set in Ethiopia and South Sudan. The interview is full of interesting stories and bits of history. Enjoy! Select here to visit the Book Chat Site To visit Caroline Kurtz's Author Site, select here  

Book Chat Interview with Caroline Kurtz2024-01-08T22:55:21+00:00

In Honor of Women in Maji

2024-01-08T22:55:22+00:00

I set out to start a non-profit organization to better lives in the subsistence farming community of Maji.  I soon learned that everything I do for the community impacts women disproportionately. This is partly because women touch every part of the life of a farming family. The men in Maji plow, plant and harvest. Their wives grow vegetables, herbs and fruit in the homestead garden; bear and raise children; care for aging members of the family; carry water and wood; provide food; take produce to local markets on foot; and help their husbands in the fields. It’s not hard to [...]

In Honor of Women in Maji2024-01-08T22:55:22+00:00

MDC—A Beacon of Hope

2024-01-08T22:55:23+00:00

MDC—A Beacon of Hope for the Dizi (deezee) People The history of the Dizi people of Maji is heartbreaking. An anthropologist wrote, Before the . . . forced incorporation of the Dizi into the Ethiopian empire, the Dizi probably numbered between 50,000 and 100,000. The conquest had profound consequences in the decades which followed—subjection to . . . economic exploitation and oppression: the abduction . . . of innumerable people as slaves, servants or carriers, only a few of whom were ever able to return: famine, disease and a growing sense of hopelessness and resignation, engendered by a total [...]

MDC—A Beacon of Hope2024-01-08T22:55:23+00:00

Showing Up

2024-01-08T22:55:24+00:00

In November of 2018, MDC was finishing up paperwork to officially put up the shingle as a nonprofit organization in the US.We were planning an order of solar home systems for electrifying family homes in the Maji District, where the national electric grid doesn’t reach. We had hired Ato (Mr.) Markos to be project manager, and were looking for a young technician to install the systems with solar panes, batteries, three lights and phone charging stations. This spring, at the edge of Maji town, was serving both people and cattle. Then, in a visit to Maji, community leaders came to Chris [...]

Showing Up2024-01-08T22:55:24+00:00

Meeting a Huge Need

2024-01-28T20:14:09+00:00

This year turned rough in March. I’ve struggled with things like evaluating risk, changing my routines, being at  home alone an awful lot, and missing my kids and grandkids. I’ll bet you’ve had similar struggles. Here’s an inspiring story from just before the pandemic shut us all down. Enjoy it. And remind yourself, there is still love. There is still hope. Good things happen even in crises. "Your team has benefitted the whole community by serving our young women." Markos G/Selassie - Business Manager, MDC The medical team that visited Maji for a week in February taught a healthy-living class  at the [...]

Meeting a Huge Need2024-01-28T20:14:09+00:00

Teamwork Produces Miracles

2024-01-28T20:14:23+00:00

Yesterday I ordered the solar equipment for the Maji hospital! It was a huge victory with many layers--your generosity, Ato Markos's leadership and people-skills (the MDC Business Manager), Ato Samson's persistence (our solar partner), the MDC lawyer team, and the Maji leaders' commitment to the good of their people--with MDC staff and board to pull everyone together. I made the down payment yesterday. In a month, when the order is packed and shipped, we'll make a second payment. When the shipment arrives in the port,  a final payment will cover clearing, transporting, installing and local maintenance training. The everyday work is [...]

Teamwork Produces Miracles2024-01-28T20:14:23+00:00

The Latest News from Maji Development Coalition

Thank you donors – Video

Clean Water|

Maji Development Coalition (MDC) is a small but mighty nonprofit. We are bringing safe water, solar power and women's development to a remote corner of rural Ethiopia. " We've brought solar lighting and phone charging to almost a 1,000 homes that were dark when the sun went down. We [...]

Read More

October Update – Hooray for Clean Water!

News|

Safe Water—For the First Time Ever! In our culture, things change. A new cell phone comes out every eighteen months; a new, slimmer laptop makes the news; a new pedometer that also tracks our sleep health is all the rage. Fashions change faster than we can wear out [...]

Read More

Solar Electricity. Clean Water. Women's Empowerment.

Maji Development Coalition

Get involved & help us continue our mission!
Maji Development Coalition making Clean water, Solar Electricity and Women's Empowerment a reality.

  • PO Box 17652
    Portland, OR 97217

  • +1.503.409.2613 or
    +251.090.246.3025

  • Email Us

RECENT POSTS

SITE CREDITS

Home Banner Video
Noah Friedman-Rudovsky
with permission by NRECA
Photography Credits
Noah Friedman-Rudovsky
And other contributors
Laura Bond, Caroline Kurtz,
Maureen McAuley & Jeri Candor
Web Site 
Mindy Schmidt

CAROLINE KURTZ MEMOIRS

Caroline Kurtz Author Memoirs Maji Ehtiopia

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