Ethiopia | Maternal Health | Community Awareness

Key Achievements

• Radio series: Produced and aired a four-part radio series on preeclampsia awareness through Civil Service University Community Radio FM 105.2.
  
• Health posters: Designed and distributed 500 photo-based visual posters across health posts and ANC clinics in Legetafo–Legedadi.
  
• Community study: Conducted a pretest study with health workers and community groups, ensuring messages were clear, relevant, and culturally appropriate.
  
• Integration: Addressed misinformation by combining expert medical explanations with lived experiences and dramatised scenes.
  
• Trust in healthcare: Strengthened trust in healthcare by highlighting the voices of midwives, nurses, and families.
  
• Storytelling: Encouraged greater male involvement in maternal health through relatable storytelling and male role models.
  
• Community engagement: Achieved strong community engagement across radio, health facilities, and online platforms.

In Legetafo–Legedadi, Ethiopia, preeclampsia continues to threaten the lives of pregnant women and newborns, often worsened by delayed referrals and low awareness of danger signs.

Drawing on interviews, focus group discussions, secondary data, and insights from local health offices and hospitals, the team examined how myths, low awareness, and care delays contribute to preventable maternal and newborn complications.

The evidence informed a four-part radio series and visual posters that combined medical explanations with lived experience, making danger signs understandable and actionable.

Through community radio and health facility outreach, the project increased awareness, strengthened trust in health services, and encouraged timely referral and shared responsibility for maternal health.

“The pretest phase revealed the importance of including Amharic translations and obtaining written consent from all featured women, which enhanced cultural appropriateness and ethical practice.”