In 2020, Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia and UNFPA Ethiopia formed a partnership to combine efforts to improve maternal health outcomes for Ethiopian women living with untreated obstetric fistula injuries. This three-year joint project focuses on improving access to fistula for Ethiopian women, as well as reaching more women for screening and referral of cervical cancer. The Patient Identification Program is a key […]

Thirty years on, we remember Dr Reg Hamlin If ever there was an unsung Kiwi hero, it was Dr Reg Hamlin. His impact on obstetric fistula care would spread far and wide and change the lives of tens of thousands of women. His journey began in 1908 in Napier, New Zealand. As a boy, he […]

Birth injuries and stillbirth are a part of the often unseen and uncounted collateral damage of war. This is twenty-five-year-old Fatuma’s story Fatuma is originally from a remote rural village in Northern Ethiopia, a war affected region facing devastating damages from the recent conflict. Traditionally, survival revolves around farming the family land for a subsistence […]

There is a hidden epidemic of pelvic organ prolapse among women in rural Ethiopia Emama thinks she is about 60 years old. She is the proud mother of six grown children, all lucky to survive her unattended births in her remote North Ethiopian village. Life was relatively happy for Emama and her husband until the […]

For twenty-seven-year-old Etenesh, studying health was her life-long dream. When Hamlin approached her about a midwifery scholarship she didn’t hesitate to apply. Born and raised in the small town of Gorgora, located on the shore of Lake Tana where the Blue Nile River starts its long journey, Etenesh studied at the Hamlin College of Midwives […]

Not every fistula is caused by obstructed childbirth. For Hawwa, her injury was caused by traumatic sexual intercourse. Hawwa was only 13 when her parents arranged her marriage to a much older man. Although she had been lucky enough to attend five years of school in her rural village in Northern Ethiopia, marriage ended her […]

Before joining the Equipping programme at Hamlin Fistula, Asmira struggled to provide for her family. Now she and her family are thriving, thanks to the skills she learned.

For five perilous days, Almaz endured an obstructed labour in her small Ethiopian village without a midwife. Without appropriate medical care, Almaz’s condition seriously deteriorated, and led to her suffering an obstetric fistula injury. The devastating impact of those five days without a midwife would be felt for ten long years.

In the final year of her degree, Rahmet spent three months attending practical clinical placements, while also learning about mental health care in midwifery practice, health service management and understanding ultrasound. While she was on this placement, Rahmet saw the impact of Hamlin Midwives firsthand: “During my spring placement there were no fistula cases,” she recalls.

Elfinesh has been running her shop for the last three years, where she sells a wide variety of products needed for life in a rural town in northwestern Ethiopia. You could find just about anything you need in her small shop – from spices to soap, cooking oil to safety pins. Hanging from the roof are small packs of washing powder and sachets of yeast – an ingredient often added to make injera (an Ethiopian bread similar to a savoury crêpe).