“Look at me now, I am the happiest woman in the world! I walk around with confidence and dignity. Now I can work and change my life.” – Mulu Obstetric fistula stole Mulu’s joy, confidence and relationships for 17 years. Today, because of you, Mulu is regaining her health, happiness and sense of self, after […]

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 […]

Treat Hamlin’s hard working clinical team performed 2,584 surgeries for women with birth injuries from fistula and pelvic organ prolapse Rehabilitate 420 women received psychological and social support Equip We don’t just treat women with fistula, we empower them to return to lives of dignity. In Hamlin’s comprehensive reintegration program 1,253 women received numeracy and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

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.

At the age of 13, Dubalech was raped near her home by a stranger. The very active teenager lost confidence and became greatly depressed. She quit school and isolated herself from her friends and classmates. 

Toyiba’s childhood was a traditional one. She did not attend school, instead spending her days looking after her family’s cattle and sheep, collecting water from a distant water hole and collecting firewood. When she was not attending to these many chores, she was helping her mother at home.