Women’s Recovery & Transformation Program

We believe that these women know exactly what the solutions are to their problems, along with our trusted partner the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), with whom we've worked for over 25 years, the local government and the community. This new direction is a commitment to their wisdom, ensuring every dollar directly supports these local initiatives to rebuild their lives.

The Women Recovery and Transformation Program (WRTP)

Map and Flag of Ethiopia

The Women’s Recovery and Transformation Program (WRTP) is a vital, community-based initiative in Adwa, Tigray, designed to meet the urgent needs of women devastated by the recent conflict. The war has inflicted immense physical, psychological and economic suffering on many thousands of women in the area.


When we first encountered the women, their world had been decimated. Grieving the loss of their homes, livelihoods, and family members. Trauma and grief engulfed them.

Rebuilding lives

Economic empowerment

Business skills

Women-focused community development

Trauma healing

Our comprehensive approach

  • Establish stakeholder committees

  • Identify the neediest women

  • Organize women self-help groups, also known as VESAs (village economic social associations)

  • Provide business skills training

  • Trauma healing

  • Technical training for commodity management

  • Procure and provide commodities, eg, small livestock, poultry and cash for petty trade

  • Provide technical support to women

  • Conduct program monitoring and impact assessment

Growth and transformation

Two women smiling and standing in a dry, cracked field, with cattle in the background, wearing colorful headscarves and clothing.

What began as a pilot in four local areas has now grown significantly, touching the lives of many thousands of women and their children. We plan to scale the program across all affected areas.


This growth is more than just a number; it is a transformation in spirit, confidence, and hope. With the support of the WRTP, their story is profoundly changing. This powerful shift cannot be captured in financial reports or spreadsheets. It lives, instead, in the subtle, powerful human transformations that restore humanity, dignity and the spirit of women who had been broken by war.

“If I didn’t get this support, I would have died”

Trauma survivor Beriha Hagos used a 40,000-birr ($260 USD) grant to expand her coffee business. She stopped begging, found "peace of mind," and now secures her family's future.