FALL, 2007
In this issue:
• Letter from Sister Ruth Kennedy
• Understanding How Midwives can Improve Maternal Health
• A Walk to Beautiful shows at "Grand Performances² Film Series in Los Angeles
• Danielle Polland gives from Heart and Head
• New Support from Johnson & Johnson
• 2006 Annual Report Published
• Kathryn Davis: A Mighty Generous Heart
Click here to give a young Ethiopian woman her dignity—and get a little of your own
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Hamlin College of Midwives Moves Quickly Forward
When Dr. Catherine Hamlin and her late husband, Reg, came to Ethiopia in the late 1950s their initial goal was to start a Midwifery program. Now, nearly fifty years later, Dr. Hamlin's dream moves closer to reality with the building of a new "Hamlin College of Midwives" in Addis Ababa. The aim of the College is to place midwives in villages near the five new small fistula hospitals they are building in provinces outside the capitol, Addis Ababa. These midwives will help ensure healthier deliveries, and help prevent fistula and other childbirth injuries. The construction costs for the College are being funded by the Fistula Foundation with generous support from the Caris Foundation and from corporate supporter, Johnson & Johnson.
The team in Ethiopia has been exceedingly busy in recent months on a number of fronts preparing the new College to admit students in 2008. The key buildings, containing classrooms, laboratory and dormitories are under construction near the Hospital's "Desta Mender" (Amharic for Joy Village) Center about 12 miles from the main Hospital.
In addition to the construction of the main facility, Dr. Hamlin and her team have also been deeply engaged in developing the curriculum. In this endeavor they've received key support from Professor Ann Thomson from Manchester University in the United Kingdom.
One of the most important aspects of ensuring success for the College is selection of the students. The initial class of students was selected from diverse regions of Ethiopia: Tigray, Amhara and Southern Nations and Nationalities People Region, and the Eastern part of Ethiopia, near Harar. A test was given to preparatory students. From the pool of students who passed the test, a final selection of students is to be made by the Medical Director of the Hospital and the Steering Committee. The target class size for the first year of the College is 15 - 18 students. The Foundation is grateful to Outreach Coordinator, Solomon Abebe, for keeping us updated on progress at the College and to Sister Ruth Kennedy, an experienced midwife, for serving as an engaging ambassador for it.
Dr. Hamlin and her team are taking an important step forward in their efforts to ensure maternal health and prevent fistula, complementing their pioneering role in fistula treatment. Stay tuned for more information about the Hamlin College of Midwives and ways you can help support the College.
Main buildings for Hamlin College of Midwives under construction
Foundation awarded Google Grant
This August the Fistula Foundation was delighted to learn we'd been awarded a "Google Grant" from Internet powerhouse Google, Inc. The grant will provide the Foundation with free advertising on the world-famous Google network. The ads will help direct users of Google to the Fistula Foundation's website when they search using a wide variety of search words related to fistula specifically and maternal health more broadly. The Foundation is deeply grateful to Google for this generous grant to help the Foundation spread awareness of Hamlin Fistula Hospitals and their inspiring work.
Letter from Sister Ruth Kennedy
Sister Ruth Kennedy,
Hospital Liaison Officer
Dear Friends of our beautiful hurting women and girls,
You care! You are therefore precious to us at the Hamlin Fistula Hospitals in Ethiopia, but you are of even greater worth to some one like Wotate. We met her in Yirgalem, southern Ethiopia; she was sitting up in bed looking like something out of a famine picture book, but with the most radiant smile shining through her weariness.
The dear child of sixteen went into labour six months previously for what she thinks were two very long days and it could have been longer; her little stunted body after this horrendous childbirth nightmare, had to fight infections, repair the wounds in her birth passage and deal with her multiple losses (her darling baby, her place in society, her husband and her normal body functions), all on the basic diet of the subsistence farmer of rural Sidama in southern Ethiopia.
There was never enough food, but her husband was kind though not much older or much taller than she; having a baby was a plus for Wotate, she loves children, watching her with other babies on the ward she is sweet, gentle and tender.
There was no birth attendant but the local women; they do care but know so little; the hospital is too far and so costly; the health professionals too busy with their work load, so rural families deliver their darling babies at home, on mud floors with the women folk around clicking their tongues hoping that the best outcome - the baby - will come out; some do and some don't. Then again some mothers survive, some don't and some wish they had not survived.
Our beautiful Wotate who greets us always with a smile and is so grateful should not have to be obliged to us; she should have that basic human right which is to have a live and darling baby, to love, to hold, to nurture and to mother. The Hamlin College of Midwives intends in three years to place two well trained highly skilled midwives into communities such as Wotate's to provide pre-natal supervision of mothers, providing clean and safe deliveries, live babies and whole bodies; where childbirth is no longer a death sentence or a living death for our sisters, our daughters and our mothers.
It is with help such as yours that we can teach, train, mentor, supervise and encourage young rural Ethiopian high school graduates and transform them into the most honourable profession.
God bless you all for this!
Ruth
Wotate when she arrived, virtually skeletal |
Wotate, one month later |
Wotate today, three months later |
"A vision without a task is but a dream. A task without vision is drudgery. A vision and a task is the hope of the world."
— Inscription, Church in Sussex England, 1730
Board Of Directors
Abaynesh Asrat |
Linda Levee Samuels |
Understanding How Midwives Can Improve Maternal Health
Unlike women in developing countries, few of us here have known someone who died because of pregnancy and childbirth. Yet, maternal mortality is a present reality in many developing countries, where the lifetime risk of death related to pregnancy can be as high as 1 in 6. There are a number of factors that contribute to this shocking and deeply distressing level of mortality. Certainly one factor is lack of trained medical personnel to assist with labor.
There is research from countries around the world that can shed light on how women perish. It may surprise some to learn that the majority of women who die do so in hospitals, but often they arrive too late to be saved, or the hospital is ill-equipped to save them. Indeed, the three main types of cases resulting in death according to the Lancet, a globally recognized medical journal, (September 30, 2006, page 1195) include:
- Women who arrive in a mortally damaged state too late to benefit from emergency care.
- Women who arrive with complications who could have been saved if they had received timely and effective interventions.
- Women admitted for normal delivery who subsequently develop serious complications and die without receiving emergency care.
To quote directly from the Lancet "numerous studies have shown that delays in recognition and treatment of life-threatening complications, as well as sub-standard practices, contribute directly to maternal deaths."
A well trained midwife can help a pregnant woman have a healthy delivery. In addition to helping with relatively uncomplicated births, a midwife who has access to a referral hospital, can make a big difference in outcomes for laboring women who experience significant problems. Specifically, a midwife can help ensure that a woman who has potentially life-threatening complications gets to a medical facility where appropriate medical interventions can be made in time to save the woman's life.
The new midwives that will be trained at the Hamlin College of Midwives will help more women have healthy deliveries. Further, since these new midwives will be placed in villages surrounding the new small fistula hospitals, they will have a referral hospital for laboring women with complications that is equipped to deal effectively with their problems. These new midwives will thus be a positive step forward in helping prevent fistula.
A Walk to Beautiful shows at Los Angeles "Grand Performance" 3rd Annual Film Series
The moving documentary "A Walk to Beautiful" was screened at the Los Angeles Grand Performances 3rd Annual Film Series in August. The series is sponsored by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District and the Los Angeles Downtown News, in collaboration with the Pan African Film Festival. As with screenings in other cities, the audience reaction to the film was overwhelmingly positive. Many attendees stayed for a post-screening discussion featuring Fistula Foundation Executive Director, Kate Grant, and Ayuko Babu, the Founder and Executive Director of the Pan African Film Festival.
Michael Alexander, Executive Director-Grand Performances, Kate Grant,
Executive Director-the Fistula Foundation,
Leigh Ann Hahn, Director of Programming-Grand
Performances, Ayuko Babu, Founder and Executive Director-The Pan African
Film Festival.
Danielle Polland Gives from Heart and Head
Danielle Polland is not your typical high school freshman. While many young girls her age are not aware of the perils of pregnancy in a developing country, let alone the childbirth injury obstetric fistula, Danielle, is doing research to find out as much as she can about fistula. She said when she first heard about fistula she was surprised at "how girls around my age could be shunned from their families and communities because of a condition they could not help." Further, Danielle said "this made me realize how lucky I was." As Danielle learned more about fistula, she developed a resolve to get involved to help fistula sufferers. To get going, she asked friends who attended a party for her middle school graduation last spring to make gifts to the Foundation instead of gifts to her. Danielle's next plan is to start a fistula club at her school to help other girls her age understand more about fistula. Thanks, Danielle and please stay in touch!
Fistula Foundation supporter, Danielle Polland
2006 Annual Report Published
The Fistula Foundation published its 2nd Annual Report this summer, summarizing the work of Hamlin Fistula Hospitals, and the efforts of the Foundation to support them. Any one wishing to obtain a copy of the Report can call our office at 408 249-9596 or email us at info@fistulafoundation.org.
New Support from Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is the largest and most loyal corporate supporter of the Foundation and Hospital. We are grateful for their ongoing support and are honored by a new grant of $50,000 we received this September. Johnson & Johnson exhibits truly outstanding corporate citizenship through their Contributions Program, demonstrating by their financial and product gifts what it means to be a good corporate citizen.
Return to topKathryn Davis: A Mighty Generous Heart
The Foundation was deeply honored by the generous donation made to the Foundation by the late Kathryn Davis and forwarded to us by her loving sister, Gloria Word. After a courageous five-year battle against breast cancer, Kathryn passed away this spring. Those that knew Kat, as she was known, said she was beautiful both inside and out, always thinking of others, and was doing just that to the end of her own life. She specifically requested that there be no funeral, saying that these funds could be better spent helping the innocent young girls and women treated by Dr. Hamlin and her team. The words "thank you" seem inadequate to express how honored and grateful we are for Kathryn Davis's generosity.
Return to topLatest News
- Sister Ruth Kennedy will appear as a guest speaker on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at a screening of A Walk to Beautiful sponsored by Charlotte, North Carolina, Women of Vision.
- The Washington DC Area Tesfa Ineste Committee is hosting its third annual fundraising event on Sunday, December 9th at the Marriott Hotel Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Virginia. The last two years, hundreds of Ethiopian-Americans have turned out for the art show, music and entertainment the event offers. For more information, please contact the Foundation.
- Women Deliver Conference in London, October 18-20, 2007 is a global gathering of experts, activists and organizers who care about advancing the health of mothers around the world. Dr. Catherine Hamlin, founder of the Fistula Hospital, will be a featured speaker at the Conference on a panel about obstetric fistula treatment and prevention.
Our Mission:
The Fistula Foundation is dedicated to the treatment and prevention of obstetric fistula, the most devastating aftermath of prolonged, obstructed labor, through the support of the programs of the Hamlin Fistula Hospitals in Ethiopia.
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