Although 80–90% of Ethiopia’s population uses traditional medicine, research funding still goes towards finding top-down pharmaceutical solutions to medical problems.

Abebech set up her own centre to preserve traditional knowledge and to present traditional systems of healing in their entirety

Twenty kilometres south of Addis Ababa, Hakim Abebech and her husband leased a few acres of land. They reforested the hills and grow herbs using organic methods.

The centre they created is called Deshet – after the father of the ancient healing tradition of Ethiopia. Deshet is a centre for growing, preserving and documenting medicinal plants.

Hakim Abebech spends two or three months collecting plants for her medicines from all over the country. She has researched traditional ways of storing seed, and has created her own seed bank, using clay pots and various gums for sealing

The Deshet centre provides its visitors with a first-hand experience of traditional lifestyle – a place to experience healthy food, and to remember that our bodies are designed to live at a human rather than a machine-led pace