Somaliland Fistula Treatment Facility nears completion

Edna Adan Hospital poised to expand fistula treatment

The Foundation is funding the first dedicated fistula treatment facility in Somaliland at the Edna Adan Maternity and Teaching Hospital in Hargeysa. Foundation partner, Direct Relief International, is coordinating this project. Foundation support is also equipping the facility and funding training for staff.

 

Nearly completed Fistula Treatment Facility
at Edna Adan Hospital in Hargeysa, Somaliland

The building is set to be officially inaugurated later this year. We'll make sure to include pictures of that happy event in our next newsletter.

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The Mission of the Fistula Foundation is to raise awareness of and funding for fistula treatment, prevention, and educational programs worldwide.

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2009 Annual Report Published

The Fistula Foundation published its 2009 Annual Report this summer, summarizing the work of the Foundation and its financial position. Any one wishing to obtain a copy can email us at info@fistulafoundation.org or call us at 408 249-9596. Alternatively, you can view and/or download the report directly from our website at www.fistulafoundation.org.

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Board Member, Dr. Larry William visits Panzi Hospital in D.R.Congo

Here's Dr. William's account of his trip

I visited the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (known as the DRC) early this June. This part of DRC has suffered greatly from its closeness to Rwanda. When the genocide in Rwanda concluded about 16 years ago, many of the perpetrators of that enormous human tragedy fled to neighboring countries. Now, the Interahamwe, the murderers from Rwanda, live in the forests of the DRC where they terrorize the local population. However, these are not the only thugs who prey on the local population. Eastern Congo has had other major conflicts with ever-changing militias who have raped, bludgeoned and pillaged the local population with abandon. A recent study of Eastern DRC published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that 67% of households have experienced conflict-related human rights abuses against family members, including physical and sexual violations.

Panzi Hospital is a veritable island of healing in one of the worst neighborhoods on earth. The hospital treats a general medical population as well as women with fistula, treated in a special ward. While the vast majority of these patients developed their fistulas from the absence of emergency obstetrics, the local conflicts also play a major role in this problem. Often women are afraid to seek help for troubled deliveries because they fear attacks en route to hospitals. These women suffer the horrors of unsuccessful obstructed labor at home and, usually after days of fruitless labor, have both a stillborn child and an obstetric fistula.

It was at Panzi Hospital that I met and talked with several patients, among them Wabiwa, a 21-year-old woman. She was pregnant and close to her delivery date when she went to collect mushrooms in the forest along with a lady friend. There they were surprised by five soldiers of the Interwehame. Both women were serially raped by all 5 men, then raped again with foreign objects, and then abandoned. Wabiwa says that after this her neighbors brought her to a local hospital where she shortly after delivered a stillborn baby. Then she bled for a week and found that she continuously leaked urine—the sign of a fistula resulting from her trauma.

The local hospital could not treat this problem, so she was transferred by ambulance to a regional hospital. Again they found her fistula problem too complex for their facility and so in April she was transferred to the Panzi Hospital. She has had a successful surgery and will eventually return home to her husband and 6-year-old child. Currently, she is no longer in the fistula surgery section of the hospital but is getting psychological care from the victims of sexual violence portion of Panzi. In addition to the large ward for fistula care, this hospital has another specialized ward for treatment of women who have suffered sexual violence, a ward for care of orphaned and abused children under the age of 12, and a ward for patients with HIV disease, often a consequence of sexual attacks. It is the only facility that can manage complex fistula care in a region with a population greater than 2 million people.

I left the DRC in awe of the great work being done at the Panzi Hospital, but aghast at the enormous human tragedies I witnessed.

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Foundation earns Better Business Bureau Seal — third time!

The Fistula Foundation is proud to have again earned the Better Business Bureau's Charitable Seal for meeting all 20 of the BBB's Standards of Charity Accountability. This is the third time the Foundation has qualified for the Seal, which is valid for two years.

In order to qualify for the Seal, nonprofit organizations, like the Fistula Foundation, have to meet 20 best-practice standards. These standards were developed by the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance to foster public confidence in charitable organizations and help assist donors in making sound giving decisions.

The BBB requires that the Foundation provide detailed documentation to show proper governance procedures, financial management policies and truthfulness in fundraising practices. The Foundation will continue to proudly display the BBB Seal on our website and printed materials. To learn more, you can visit www.give.org or call our office.

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Dr. Hamlin awarded Honorary Doctorate Degree

Dr. Hamlin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Addis Ababa University for her long years of service to the people of Ethiopia. This is the first time that such an award has been given by the Addis Ababa University.

The award was given at the graduation ceremony for Addis Ababa University, on August 31st. There were over 10,000 people in attendance and the whole event was televised live in Ethiopia.

The President of the University gave an introduction to each guest and spoke at length about the contribution that Dr. Hamlin and her late husband, Reginald had made. Dr. Hamlin then was given the opportunity to address the audience. In this address she spoke of the terrible hardships that women have suffered in rural areas, the work of the hospital to reach out to them. The degree was a great recognition for Dr. Hamlin and her work with her husband over many years.

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San Jose Mercury News

G8 nations need to stem the vast tide of deaths in childbirth
By Kate Grant

If you're a mother-to-be in the United States, one of your rites of passage on your way to a safe delivery is to attend a childbirth class. During the class I took, the discussion at times seemed fixated on the goal of "natural" childbirth, meaning, of course, drug-free labor. I did exercises like holding an ice cube while counting to 60 and being taught to breathe deeply.

I have to admit, little of that diligent training worked with me. After 10 hours of labor, and literally unbearable pain that felt nothing like holding an ice cube, I pleaded for drugs. My son was born healthy by cesarean section 12 hours later.

Had I been like the majority of women in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, I would have delivered at home, without a trained attendant and postpartum care for my son. Forget the painkilling meds. Forget the C-section, and likely forget giving birth to a healthy child. The result: more than 300,000 maternal deaths, and the deaths of 3.5 million newborns.

The biggest threat to the lives of teenage girls and young women in the developing world is pregnancy and childbirth. According to the World Health Organization, a woman living in sub-Saharan Africa faces a lifetime risk of dying due to pregnancy of 1 in 16. And for every woman who dies, another 20 suffer from illness and disability, like obstetric fistula, that without surgery to repair it leaves its victims incontinent social outcasts.

The tragedy does not end there. The children of these mothers are much more likely to die, too.

Even in our own state, we see increased need to invest in the health of women. As reported recently by the University of Washington, California's pregnancy-related death rate of 19 per 100,000 in 2008 actually tripled in the previous 12 years. While the definitive report from the state Department of Public Health has yet to be issued, likely causes are the growing levels of obesity and diabetes and our dysfunctional health care delivery system.

Beyond the human heartbreak of this situation, there's an economic cost: $15 billion is lost each year worldwide because these women cannot contribute to their communities and their economies. And perhaps the most shocking aspect of the deaths and their impact is that most of these maternal deaths and injuries are completely preventable.

Last month the G-8 Meeting took up the health of the world's mothers as part of its agenda. But the final communiqué committed the G-8 to a far smaller level of maternal health funding than was expected. Coming on the heels of a major inter-na-tional maternal health conference, Women Deliver, in Washington, DC in early June, this is a blow to those that give and nurture life - the world's would-be-mothers.

There is one clear area where new funds can be used now to keep would-be mothers from dying. There is a global gap of 3.5 million health workers, including midwives, nurses and doctors, who can provide emergency obstetric care and prevent death and injury. With prompt, skilled attention, most maternal deaths can be prevented. New funds should be deployed immediately to train these workers and prevent these needless deaths.

While conventional wisdom may say that the Great Recession makes this the wrong time for such investments, the truth is that the global slowdown has hurt the poor of the world, its women and children, the hardest. Now is the time to demonstrate that the health of mothers matters more than ever.

Kate Grant is the Executive Director of the Fistula Foundation and served as the Deputy Chief of Staff at USAID during the Clinton Administration. She wrote this piece for the Mercury News.

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Board of Directors

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We've Moved!

Five years have flown by quickly. Our five year lease was up and we've moved offices. Our new office at 1900 The Alameda, in San Jose, is only about one mile from our old office. Our phone number and email addresses have not changed.

New Address:
1900 The Alameda
Suite 500
San Jose, CA 95126

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