When the emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by a coup in 1974 Mrs. Marta and Mr.Demeke learned that their names were on “The List” of government people to be arrested the next day. They were forced to abandon their home and everything they held dear, take three of their sons who were still at home and fled the country to Kenya and ultimately to the United States of America.

Two years later, in America they established Project Mercy as an International Emergency Relief and Community Development Ministry, a registered 501© (3) organization, placed under the leadership of a 7-person Board. To this day both Mrs. Marta and Mr. Demeke serve as the International Executive Director of Project Mercy.  For three decades, Project Mercy has provided emergency relief, educational assistance and refugee relocation to Ethiopian refugees.

Through the devastating famines and civil strife of the 1970’s and 1980’s, the outreach was stretched to meet the need of refugees in Djibouti , Kenya and Sudan.  During the last 13 years Marha and Demeke’s focus was expanded to include community development and self-help in Ethiopia programs in Yetebon, Ethiopia.- an area of over 70,000 people. This underdeveloped area had no health services, no schools, no clean-water supply and no all season roads on which to reach those communities that could provide health services. Its farmers were barley surviving by working their one/two acre farms, using century-old methods. A most critical concern was the need for education for their children. Project Mercy constructed new school for the area that provides education from kindergarten to the 10th grade. Altogether, there are now 1,160 students, and ground is being broken for a new high School complex.

A full service, state of the art, 50 beds Hospital has been constructed-complex, with diagnostic services, surgical ward, pediatric ward, labor ward, etc., opened on September 15, 2004, it has already serviced over 4,500 patients. Prior to Project Mercy’s presence in Yetebon, multitude of people were dying from preventable diseases. Mrs. Marta and Demeke found it necessary to extend not only medical care but, also, preventive education to improve the life of the region. They also installed mountain spring filtered-water system piped about two miles to the compound, with spigots along its path for the community. 85 % of the area’s deaths had been attributed to polluted water. Twenty five kilometers of all season roads have been constructed, to provide access to market and medical services. Other programs include Skill enhancement, extraordinary men’s program designed local farmers to developing skills other than farming. 

 Many who participated in this program become skilled craftsmen in construction building and furniture. Marta and Demeke in 2002-2003 Ethiopian famine provided food relief to over 275,000 people in the 189 miles circumference area around the Yetebon compound. Eight Supplementary Wet feeding Centers were set up for families. Dry food was distrusted to designated areas on a monthly basis, under the oversight of trained personnel, who monitored and cared for the children and families. This emergency relief and saved many thousands of lives.  Mrs. Marta and Mr. Demeke are recipients of Honor Roll Life Member, Republican presidential Task Force award presented by President Ronald Reagan, Adam State College Outstanding Alumni Award and Special Humanitarian award from Religious Heritage of America.   

SEED Salutes Mrs. Marta G/Tsadick & Mr. Demeke Tekle-Wolde  for their act of kindness, for appealing  to our collective conscience to do good for others, for nobility and courage of their act, for enabling fellow Ethiopians to live healthier and longer lives, in recognition of their selfless deportment, as role models who have endeared themselves to our community and the world at large, as inspiring and self-less humanitarians, who have made significant difference in the lives of thousands of persons and children in Ethiopia.