Simien Mountains Mobile Medical Service, Ethiopia

Founded in 2010 by Wendy and Hugh Lovatt, the Simien Mountains Mobile Medical Service (SMMMS) now has 20 local staff members, including a project manager, five nurses and nine BSC midwifery students. Their aim is to provide medical care and health education in one of the most disadvantaged and under-served regions of Ethiopia.

Mandala Trust helped to fund SMMMS’s new programme aimed at improving adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) for the estimated 10,900 children and young people of east Debark, the closest town to the Simien Mountains National Park.

The programme has two components: health education, and health care, including prevention, screening, and treatment or referral. The AYSRH curricula will be based on government standards for different age groups, as well as UNICEF, UNFPA and WHO guidelines. It was the first project of its kind in Ethiopia, and visiting school nurses implemented the programme at the four schools in east Debark as well as to parents.

Funding was used specifically to support train-the-trainer courses for project staff and local officials on AYSRH education. The project will also identify and develop local male role-models in each community to address school students periodically, to reinforce sex education regarding responsible male behaviour. Funding may also be applied to help adolescent girls deal with menstruation, thereby reducing the number of days missed from school, by trialing solutions that have been successful elsewhere in rural Africa such as cups and reusable towels.