Waves For Water / Hamlin Fistula Hospital Clean-Water Project
Problem
Every year obstetric fistula affects at least two million women across the globe.
In Ethiopia, women make a long, arduous journey to reach the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in an attempt to end their constant misery and overcome the pressing sense of shame and rejection. A result of neglected childbirth, obstetric fistula is a hole that forms between the vagina and the bladder (and occasionally the rectum) in incidents of prolonged, obstructed labor.
A Walk To Beautiful details the harrowing birth stories and subsequent journeys of five women who decide to reclaim their dignity by traveling to Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to receive the free treatment offered by doctors Reginald and Catherine Hamlin.
Watch the short video.
History
Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital and its regional Hamlin Fistula Centers provide comprehensive care for women who suffer from incontinence, physical impairment, shame and marginalization as a result of an obstetric fistula. The hospital was created by Australian physicians Catherine Hamlin and her husband Reginald Hamlin to care for women with childbirth injuries and has been in operation since 1974. It is the only hospital of its kind in the world dedicated exclusively to women with obstetric fistula (a condition common in the developing world where maternal health provisions are poor), and it treats all patients free of charge. Patients undergo surgical repair by Ethiopian and expatriate surgeons trained at the hospital’s main facility in Addis Ababa. Around 93% of these patients are repaired successfully.
Fistula hospital, and their rural clinics, aim to cure 4,000 women annually, but Hamlin cited the World Health Organization’s estimate that there are 6,000-7,000 cases a year in Ethiopia alone.
Solution
Waves For Water has been bringing access to safe drinking water to over 10,000 people in a remote region of Ethiopia.
In response to the ongoing fistula crisis, Waves 4 Water introduced our clean-water system to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa in 2013. Our goal for the next phase is to donate thousands of filters to Fistula Hospital each year, so that each woman who left her village an outcast, returns home a hero – with a filter & bucket – and teaches young girls how to provide clean water from a local stream, river, and lake sources – so girls never have to walk long distances with heavy water loads
on their heads again.
Waves For Water / Hamlin Fistula Hospital Clean-Water Project
How YOU Can Help!
This is an ongoing large-scale project, and because of that we are seeking corporate sponsors.
However, our success with Phase 1 of the Hamlin Fistula Clinic water project was due solely to individual donors and small businesses who were passionate about this project. We are so grateful and we believe this project will thrive thanks, once again, to individual donors.
To Donate:
Please visit Waves for Water Project Ethiopia.
Click “DONATE TO THIS PROJECT”
(Please note “Fistula Project” when making your donation.)
Questions?
Watch A Walk to Beautiful and contact Jack Rose jack@wavesforwater.org
