The Simien Mountains

Background

A soaring massif in the northen Ethiopian highlands, the Simien Mountains contains some of Africa’s most dramatic scenery. Over millennia the land has been eroded away leaving a jagged maze of cliffs and gorges, home to 25,000 people.

A national park was established in 1969 and made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1978 and is home to a number of animal species found nowhere else, including the Ethiopian wolf and the walia ibex. The park is also home to a large population of gelada baboons and bearded vultures.

The Simien Mountains Mobile Medical Service

Our Partners

The Simien Mountains Mobile Medical Service deliver free, essential medical care to people living in the park, by employing five mobile nurses who travel between mountain villages providing general medical care, health education, immunisations as well as antenatal and postnatal care.

They also run a small clinic providing inpatient and outpatient care as well as delivery services for expectant mothers.

Saddle Project, The 'Amulance'

Introducing the saddle

In 2014 SaddleAid and the Simien Mountains Mobile Medical Service formed a partnership to introduce the saddle into the community. Trials in 2016 were very successful with a number of women being carried for ante natal checkups and to give birth in the health centre.

In 2017 a further four saddles were supplied and three permanent teams of mule, muleman and saddle were employed to carry patients to a further two health centres in the mountains. These trials have continued to 2019 and have proven very successful, with more saddles being requested.

Our next stage with the project is to start making the saddles in Ethiopia, which started in 2019 and will continue in 2020.