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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

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

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

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

MDC—A Beacon of Hope

2025-05-17T17:17:57+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 Hope2025-05-17T17:17:57+00:00

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Solar Electricity. Clean Water. Women's Empowerment.

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Home Banner Video
Noah Friedman-Rudovsky
with permission by NRECA
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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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