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So far developmaji has created 16 blog entries.

Lighting the Way: How Solar Power Is Saving Lives and Shaping Futures in Maji

2025-05-17T17:17:51+00:00

In Maji, where the sun shines bright, but the power grid does not reach, darkness used to be more than an inconvenience — it was dangerous. Thanks to the work of the Maji Development Coalition (MDC) and its local partners, solar energy is changing that story. Since 2015, MDC has helped bring solar electricity to hundreds of homes, schools, and—most critically—a rural hospital that now serves over 60,000 people. That change is already saving lives. Not long ago, Meskerem (a Maji mother) was expecting her fourth child and began to face serious complications late in her pregnancy. In the past, she [...]

Lighting the Way: How Solar Power Is Saving Lives and Shaping Futures in Maji2025-05-17T17:17:51+00:00

Caroline’s Legacy, Our Promise

2025-05-17T17:17:51+00:00

Why the Women’s Development Center Matters So Much: Caroline Kurtz has spent her life walking alongside the people of Maji, Ethiopia —with deep roots, quiet strength, and a vision for sustainable change. Caroline first arrived in Maji as a first grader, when her parents came to help establish a school, a clinic, and a small church. As she returned to teach English in Addis Ababa, she often thought about Maji. After the fall of Ethiopia’s communist regime, she returned—wanting to see what remained of her father’s work and how the community had endured. What she found were church buildings repurposed as [...]

Caroline’s Legacy, Our Promise2025-05-17T17:17:51+00:00

Breaking Ground on the Women’s Development Center!

2025-05-17T17:17:52+00:00

A Foundation of Hope: The First Steps Toward the Women’s Development Center Something amazing is happening in Maji—and it’s all thanks to the Spirit moving hearts (and sand)! Just a few weeks ago, we faced a major hurdle: no sand. Maji sits high in the mountains at 8,000 feet, where there’s plenty of mud—but no sand. This is critical for building the Women's Development Center. Back when I was a kid, the tiny pile of sand on our veranda was so precious we weren’t even allowed to touch it! Today, not much has changed—building materials like sand and gravel still have [...]

Breaking Ground on the Women’s Development Center!2025-05-17T17:17:52+00:00

An Amazing Story!

2025-05-17T17:17:53+00:00

An Amazing Story - Progress in Maji! Back when I was a kid in Maji, we had a pile of sand on our veranda. That sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? But no. We were not allowed to play in the sand under threat of being sent to Siberia (my dad’s favorite exaggerated warning of punishment). Why??? Well, Maji is 8000 feet high, on the last of Ethiopian mountains before the land drops off to the plains of Kenya and the savannahs of South Sudan. There was plenty of mud—clay mud—but no sand. For building with cement (we had [...]

An Amazing Story!2025-05-17T17:17:53+00:00

Trip Report: May 2024

2025-05-17T17:17:54+00:00

In May, Chris Bounds, Charley Bounds, Rick Smith, and Tracy Sauerwein of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho traveled with me to Addis Ababa, Mizan, and Maji. The trip goals were: To have members observe and report back to Covenant PC on the work that MDC has accomplished To introduce CPC members to colleagues and collaborators of MDC To foster relationships between members of the Maji mother church and of Covenant Church To finalize the MoU with Solar Energy Foundation on collaboration in the future work of MDC To finalize the MoU with the Maji Presbytery for building and running women’s [...]

Trip Report: May 20242025-05-17T17:17:54+00:00

Thank you donors – Video

2025-05-17T17:17:54+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 – Video2025-05-17T17:17:54+00:00

October Update – Hooray for Clean Water!

2025-05-17T17:17:54+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!2025-05-17T17:17:54+00:00

August Update

2025-05-17T17:17:55+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 Update2025-05-17T17:17:55+00:00

Update: Siski and Adikas Clean Water Project

2025-05-17T17:17:56+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 Project2025-05-17T17:17:56+00:00

Book Chat Interview with Caroline Kurtz

2025-05-17T17:17:56+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 Kurtz2025-05-17T17:17:56+00:00

The Latest News from Maji Development Coalition

Solar Electricity. Clean Water. Women's Empowerment.

Maji Development Coalition

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Maji Development Coalition making Clean water, Solar Electricity and Women's Empowerment a reality.

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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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