Thirty-six year-old Sister Domenica is originally from South Sudan in a small town called Upper Nile, located very close to Ethiopian border. Now she is training to be a Hamlin midwife.

Hamlin Fistula has been setting the international standard in fistula care in Ethiopia for 63 years. Yet Kiwi care is lagging behind.

Training highly skilled midwives remains one of the key strategies in Hamlin’s Model of Care to prevent and eradicate obstetric fistula in Ethiopia.

2019 marks 60 years since Dr Reg and Dr Catherine Hamlin first arrived in Addis Ababa on a three-year contract to train midwives.

NZ has made a move to focus on Ethiopia. In an effort by NZ to strengthen diplomatic relations with the African Union.

Christchurch physiotherapist Ann Johnson (expatriate of the UK), who specialises in working in gynaecology with women who experience incontinence, recently assumed the role of physiotherapy tutor to Hamlin Fistula, after her UK colleague retired from the role. In March she travelled to Addis Ababa for her first ever visit to Hamlin Fistula Hospital.

Former Gisborne “country girl” Christina Campbell has raised more than $8000 for midwifery in Ethiopia after completing a 1000km trek on the renowned Camino de Santiago trail in northern Spain.

On May 16, 2019 the BBC Radio interviewed Mamitu. Listen to Mamitu telling her remarkable story in her own words.

Just about the worst thing that can happen to a teenage girl in this world is to develop an obstetric fistula that leaves her trickling bodily wastes, stinking and shunned by everyone around her. That happened four decades ago to Mamitu Gashe.

The team at Hamlin’s Rehabilitation and Reintegration Centre, Desta Mender, continues to restore the health and dignity of women who have sustained severe or complex obstetric fistula injuries. Desta Mender embodies the Hamlin Model of Care, which is grounded in a fundamental respect for women with fistula injuries and a deep commitment to the provision of complete and compassionate care.