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 government offices, the school turned into a struggling high school, and homes in disrepair.
Caroline stepped in, not to reclaim the past, but to help rebuild what mattered for the future.
She worked with church leaders to recover the land, secured support to repair the buildings, and began laying the groundwork for something lasting. In 2015, she founded Maji Development Coalition (MDC) in response to a simple yet urgent request: solar lighting for the clinic’s delivery room so women didn’t have to give birth in the dark.
Since then, this all-volunteer nonprofit has grown into a powerful force for community transformation.
MDC has brought solar electricity to hundreds of homes and a new regional hospital serving 60,000 people, installed safe drinking water systems for families in town and in rural areas, and helped establish women’s self-help groups that meet regularly for training, support, and economic opportunity.
The Maji Women’s Development Center will be a place where women will gather, train, and build income-generating businesses.
The Women’s Development Center will be run by community leaders and self-funded by commercial space. We are pouring everything into this building. And we hope you’ll join us to help bring it fully to life. This will be MDC’s final major project as we evolve toward sustainable programs—and what a chapter it is!
A place where women can gather, grow, support one another, and shape their future.
