“Ethiopia’s Female Health Army” examines a major public policy initiative undertaken by the Ethiopian government to improve the health care system and control population growth in one of the poorest and most populous countries in Africa. Ethiopia faces daunting statistics as it works to improve its economy: 2100 doctors to treat a population of 85 million people with a per capita income of $410. Ethiopia’s birth rate of 4.6 children per woman is high even among developing countries.To change that, the government has hired 34,000 health extension workers who establish health clinics in rural areas where mothers bring their children to get vaccinated and receive treatment for common illnesses. It has also set up what it calls the Health Development Army, encouraging women volunteers to pass on basic information to their neighbors: don’t bring animals like cows into the house. Wash your hands to ward off bacteria. Use birth control. “Ethiopia’s Female Health Army” looks at how this approach is working in a country where having enough children to work on the farm amounts to accumulating the kind of currency that families rely on.
