Why Ethiopia, and what we've built there

Ethiopia is home to roughly 60 million people who still lack access to basic water supply — nearly half the country. The gap is steepest in rural areas, where about 22% of people have piped water and 40% rely on unimproved sources. The health cost shows up everywhere: 60 to 80% of communicable diseases in Ethiopia trace back to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene, and diarrhoea remains the country's second-leading killer of children under five. The Oromia region — which sits along the Great Rift Valley and includes the lowland community of Metahara — was hit especially hard by recent drought; UNICEF alone treated more than 1.2 million child diarrhoea cases there during a single 12-month stretch. In 2022, we partnered with Compassion International to bring clean drinking water to Metahara.

When Compassion International surveyed the area before the project, their research found that 67% of children there were suffering from a water-related illness. Metahara sits in a semi-arid stretch of the Rift Valley where surface water is unreliable and often contaminated, which made a dedicated, sustained clean-water source the right intervention — one that addresses both the immediate child-health crisis and the long-running fragility of local supply.

"We couldn't get enough water for washing hands and around the restrooms during activity days at the center." — Yacob, age 13, Metahara, Ethiopia

Ethiopia has shown up as one of our coffee origins in the past, specifically one of our featured World Wonders roasts. Keep an eye out for more Ethiopian coffee in the future! Until then, every bag we sell from Uganda, Nicaragua, and our World Wonders microlots helps fund work like this.