VSO has been working in Ethiopia since 1995. Volunteers in Ethiopia support key programmes improving health outcomes for mothers and babies as well as supporting Ethiopia’s most marginalised children access education.
Volunteering in Ethiopia
VSO volunteer and NHS midwife Sarika trains midwives after resuscitation at Mulu Asefa Primary Hospital.
We're proud of the impact we're making in Ethiopia. Over the past six years, we’ve established or improved 47 neonatal intensive care units, 12 new-born corners, four high dependency units and four maternity waiting homes.
In the health facilities where we have established or strengthened a neonatal intensive care units, we've seen a 40% average reduction in institutional mortality. None of this would be possible without highly skilled healthcare volunteers.
We're also supporting some of the country's most marginalised children access an education. Our education volunteers are supporting work to increase school attendance, improve quality of teaching and better provide inclusive environments for all children to learn in.
Volunteers are also supporting initiatives to bring psychosocial support and improve education to children impacted by conflict in the Oromia region.
Volunteer stories from Ethiopia
Meet the volunteer providing psychosocial support to those affected by conflict
Kamal Jaga, 40, from the UK, volunteered on the VSO Psychosocial Support Project in Ethiopia, a country ragged by internal conflict that created an estimated 2.2m internally displaced people. Read his story.
Twelve hours in newborn A&E
This photo diary of a day in the life of a remote hospital in north-east Ethiopia reveals how VSO-trained nurses and midwives are fighting to save lives.