In a remote corner of Ethiopia, a single dilapidated bridge had been critical to the lives of hundreds of thousands of Amhara highlanders who live without running water or electricity and depend on footpaths for their commerce and well-being. "If this bridge is broken, their lives are broken…"

Ken Frantz, a former builder from Virginia, is the founder of Bridges To Prosperity, a nonprofit group that constructs and repairs bridges in Asia, Africa, and South America. He formed the organization after seeing a photo of that bridge showing villagers crossing the swollen river by looping themselves and their cattle to a frayed rope held by 10 men on each side of the broken span. 

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