WINTER, 2009
In this issue:
• Half the Sky Hits Best Seller List
Click
here to help give a young woman her dignity
A publication of
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Year-End Giving
You have until December 31 to make a tax-deductible gift for 2009
to the Fistula Foundation. Click
here to learn more about how you
can:
• Donate online
• Send a check
• Or call in a donation
Nicholas Kristof: A Most Meaningful Gift Idea
Nicholas Kristof gave the Foundation a Christmas Eve endorsement in his New York Times Op/Ed. He recommended the Fistula Foundation along with only eight other charities. Here's an excerpt:
Nicholas D. Kristof
...Tired of celebrating spiritual holidays with crass commercialism?
If so, then perhaps it's time to try a different kind of gift... This time of year I'm always barraged with inquiries about well-run charitable groups doing effective work. So let me tell you about some of the organizations that I've encountered that tackle global poverty in innovative ways...
So here's my quirky holiday list of nifty, unknown charities:
the Fistula Foundation,
www.fistulafoundation.org,
...dedicated to correcting a childbirth injury that is one of the worst
things that can happen to a person: an obstetric fistula. This is an
internal injury that leaves a girl or young woman incontinent, leaking
wastes, scorned and ostracized.
A $450 surgical repair can usually solve the problem and give these young women their lives back. For fistula sufferers, it's truly the gift of a lifetime.
Click here to read the complete article.
Campaign 2010: Help More Women Get Life Changing Treatment
Click here to watch video.
You will be pleased to learn that this year the Foundation made a major move that will help us ensure more women in need get treatment. Because you and so many other caring women and men have responded so generously to our appeals, the Fistula Foundation has expanded our mission to fight fistula globally, while remaining the largest current supporter of the Hamlin Fistula Hospitals in Ethiopia.
As you know, the World Health Organization estimates there are between two and three million women with untreated fistula, often leading lives of desperation and despair—simply for want of an inexpensive operation that could dramatically change their lives. Our long term goal is to ensure that any woman with a fistula gets the treatment she deserves.
You can help meet this challenge by participating in Campaign 2010, launching this month. The goal of Campaign 2010 is to double the number of women we are able to help outside of Ethiopia in 2010. Will you help?
This year we're already funding fistula treatment programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Angola, and next year we hope to expand even further. The progress we've made with your help is exciting, but there is so much more to be done! The Fistula Foundation can rise to the challenge—but only with your continuing help.
The Mission of the Fistula Foundation is to raise awareness of and funding for fistula treatment, prevention, and educational programs worldwide.
A Patient's Story: Ethiopia
Wubalem was ten years old when her parents decided that it was time for her to get married. When she was sixteen years old she became pregnant with her first baby. she was scared of what was going to happen to her. One day the pain started and it became worse during the night. Women from her village gathered in her house to help, but with no success. After being in labor for three days, her uncle suggested they try to get her to a hospital. They walked for a whole day before reaching the nearest health center and after another day they were told to take Wubalem to a bigger hospital where they might find a doctor to help her. It was a four hour drive and it was late in the day so they waited until the next day to travel. When they arrived at the hospital they helped deliver her stillborn baby and told her she now had a bladder problem — a fistula -- that could be treated in Addis Ababa.
Wubalem eventually arrived at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital where she stayed for three months and had two operations before she was completely cured. She went home to her village and was told that if she became pregnant again she must deliver in the hospital.
That was two years ago, and now Wubalem is at the Fistula Hospital again, but this time she is here to deliver a healthy baby. This happy ending was made possible by the skilled surgeons at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital and by donors like you.
Donor Profile: Alice Smith
Alice Smith
In October, Alice Smith did something she's done for nearly eight years — attend her monthly book club meeting. The group was eager to invite a members' husband, Dr. Larry William, a long term member of the Foundation's Board of Directors to talk about health care in developing countries generally and fistula specifically. Some in the club had read Nicholas Kristof's articles on fistula and the work being done to relieve victims of the horrific injuries after rape or childbirth. Larry's presented a vivid and detailed account of the work of the Fistula Foundation. Shocked out of complacency, like so many of our generous supporters, Alice wanted to "do something". For Alice that meant signing up for the Foundation's "Love a Sister" program enabling Alice to contribute enough to fund a life-changing operation for a woman with fistula. We are grateful to Alice and all of you for also wanting to take action.
Board of Directors
Abaynesh Asrat |
Gerald Shefren, MD |
Half the Sky Hits Bestseller List
Pulitzer Prize winners Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof's new book "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" is a manifesto — labeling the oppression of women as the moral issue of our time. Read a brief review from one of the Foundation's donors, Amy N. Lipton of Greenwich, Connecticut:
Half the Sky contains shocking tales of misogyny and violence, but shows us that there is hope. Kristof and WuDunn teach us that empowering women worldwide is necessary, achievable, and depends on donors being willing to give generously and strategically. The Fistula Foundation, cited in the book is a great place to start; as the book details in horrifying detail, obstetric and traumatic fistulas can lead to tragic disability, psychological problems, related health problems and isolation. Repairing fistulas, which the Fistula Foundation makes possible, often gives these women their lives back and allows them to contribute in countless way to their families and their communities.