WAC recipient - Bati Woreda of the Amhara Regional State in northeast Ethiopia - undertook a major initiative to solve male resistance in family planning by taking the role as lead advocate in public gatherings. The committee collaborated with religious leaders to lessen the problem of resistance and organized panel discussions to discuss the health situation of the district.

The first National Reproductive Health Day in Ethiopia was celebrated on April 28, 2004. The President of Ethiopia opened the ceremonies in which over sixty CBRH agents and twenty district officials shared their experiences and successes. Rural citizens from four regional states shared views on how family planning changed their lives and why it is important to expand services throughout rural Ethiopia. Two years after initiating the USAID-funded program, Bati Woreda has mobilized all communities in a collaborative action for family planning, child health, nutrition, maternal health, and sanitation. They mapped the villages to avoid duplication and conducted surveys to expand community education. Ebsa Tadesse, WAC chairperson, also took the initiative in linking family planning services with the food security program inthe district which has led to sustainable and structural social change in the district. All this has contributed to a contraceptive prevalence rate of over 35%.