Emaye - Winter 2022

The road to new beginnings

Welcome to the Winter edition of Emaye

When you live a three-hour walk away from the nearest town, in a village with no electricity, accessing health services is not easy. Yet this is the reality for pregnant women in rural Ethiopia.

Whilst progress has been made in recent years, 70% of women in Ethiopia still give birth without a doctor or nurse present. This can result in devastating childbirth injuries including obstetric fistula, an internal injury caused by a prolonged, unrelieved obstructed labour, which leaves women incontinent, humiliated and cut off from their communities. Tragically, 93% of women with fistula have also lost their babies.

There are estimated to be thousands of women in rural and remote regions of the country living and struggling from day to day with devastating obstetric fistula injuries and little or no access to quality health care. In addition to this, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health estimates around 1,000 women suffer new fistula injuries every year. These injuries leave them trapped in a life of pain, shame and isolation.

These women are often hidden away and suffer alone for years, or even decades, without knowing that help is available. The longer they suffer, the more likely they are to develop additional complications which

need complex treatment and comprehensive rehabilitation.

Through our Big Give Christmas Challenge appeal The road to new beginnings for women with fistula our goal is to raise £30,000 for Hamlin’s Patient Identification Programme. Together we can find the hidden women of Ethiopia and offer them hope for a healthier, happier future.

Your support can go even further this Christmas when you donate via the Big Give Christmas Challenge. For seven days, between Tuesday 29 November and Tuesday 6 December, all donations made online via the Big Give will be matched, thanks to generous donors, doubling your impact.

Too many women in rural Ethiopia are suffering in isolation. I hope you will join us by donating to find, treat and care for these women. This will help them on the road to a new beginning.

Baroness

Tessa Blackstone

Hamlin Fistula UK

Double

Your

can

via the Big Give Christmas Challenge. Turn to the back page to find out how.

Hamlin Fistula UK is a registered Charity No. 1153053. Registered as a Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No. 08457433. Registered office at 4 Parade Buildings, Nimmings Road, Halesowen, B62 9JJ.

Spotlight on Amina’s story Hidden suffering of rural women

Amina lived a happy life with her three children and husband in a small village in rural Ethiopia, a six hour walk from the nearest town. With no electricity, transport or medical services nearby, she gave birth to all her children at home, just like other women in her village.

But the birth of her fourth child had complications. After an agonising 36 hours in labour, her baby was finally born and thankfully survived, but the birth caused a heart-breaking fistula injury that left Amina leaking urine. The pain, shame and isolation that followed was nothing short of devastating.

Shortly after her traumatic experience, her husband died in a tragic accident. She was left to care for her children and the small farm that their livelihoods depended on and struggle alone in pain, wrapped in the shame of her injury. With every passing day her hopes of a cure faded.

As her children grew up, she was resigned to the idea that her condition was incurable. But all this was to change as Hamlin’s Patient Identification Programme became active in Amina’s region, searching for women in need.

When Hamlin’s Patient Identification Officer Mohammed found Amina in 2021, she had been living with her injury for 25 years. A cure seemed like a long-lost dream to her. But once she arrived at the Hamlin hospital, her hopes were renewed and she was given life changing reconstructive fistula surgery. We met Amina after her surgery and she told us:

Amina, pictured right, received successful reconstructive surgery after 25 years of living with fistula.

“ This is an amazing place. For me, the motherly care and love is restorative. My first surgery was successful and at last I am cured of my incontinence after 25 years. Thank you.”

Every journey starts with a first step, Hamlin’s Patient Identification Programme

Mohammed has travelled hundreds of kilometres to educate communities and reach women in hiding.

Health Officers share information with the community, raising awareness of available treatment in small gatherings at churches, mosques and markets. They then go from door to door, often travelling on foot for kilometres to find and identify women living with obstetric fistula.

They carry and spread hope around the country.

Women who have been suffering for decades often do not believe a cure is possible. Officers need a lot of empathy and patience to build trust and assure women that help is available – and a better life is possible.

These women have lived in shame and isolation for years, even decades – they will return to their families and communities with their health and dignity restored.

Hamlin Patient Identification Officers like Mohammed travel across rural Ethiopia to find women living with untreated fistula injuries.

They visit remote communities, that are strategically selected, to teach local health officers about obstetric fistula and how to identify it.

Join us to walk in the footsteps of our officers…

Once the women feel ready, health officers arrange free transport and accommodation and take them to the nearest Hamlin fistula hospital for vital treatment and loving care. For many women, this will be the longest, and most important, journey they will ever make but it is only the first step on a long road to recovery and healing.

Some women have fistula injuries that can be repaired successfully with a single surgery, while others have more complex injuries that require multiple surgeries and extended rehabilitation.

Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia takes an holistic approach to care. Health professionals treat and heal each woman’s physical, psychological and emotional scars through world-class surgical techniques, extensive rehabilitation and loving care.

Today, six Hamlin fistula hospitals provide life-changing treatment and care to women around the country, helping them on the road to new beginnings.

With the help of Patient Identification Officers like Mohammed and supporters like you, women across Ethiopia who have lived with the suffering of fistula for many years have hope for the future.

Turn to the back cover to find out how you can help find the hidden women of Ethiopia.

No woman deserves to suffer from a horrific childbirth injury like obstetric fistula. Thanks to Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia’s Patient Identification Programme, fewer and fewer women have to.

Hamlin Health Heroes

Meet Mohammed Amin Ahmed, Patient Identification Officer

Every month, Mohammed travels hundreds of kilometres to find women in rural areas in hiding with the shame of obstetric fistula. Mohammed has been working in this role for the past nine years, he has seen first-hand the heart-breaking impact of fistula, and he knows the challenges of getting treatment.

“Many women living with obstetric fistula are uneducated and can’t express their needs or medical concerns. They are often ostracised from their communities, and have no access to transport, which also prevents them from getting help.”

Mohammed gives up much of his time with his family to travel to remote communities, educate people and get women the help they so desperately need.

“I listen, comfort and counsel women, and convince them that there is a better life waiting for them. I explain that at a Hamlin fistula hospital they will receive physiotherapy, psychological and nutritional therapy to get them ready for their surgery and treatment, all for free.”

Thanks to Mohammed’s dedication and passion, women like Amina are well on their way to a new, healthy life, among their family and community – a new beginning.

“Patient Identification Officers are the channel between patients and treatment. We feel these women’s pain and want to help them get better. But we also have to change the perception and stigma around fistula, so that we can help women come out of hiding,” reflects Mohammed.

He is determined to find the women who have been forced to live in the shadows as a result of the stigma and pain of fistula.

Our Patient Identification Officers couldn’t carry out this vital work without your support. Thank you.

Help Hamlin Patient Identification Officers, like Mohammed, to find women who have been suffering in silence. Turn to the back page to find out how.

Health, hope and happiness

Ethiopian women leaving a Hamlin hospital with their health and happiness restored, and hope for the future.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of those we help

“I have become completely free of incontinence and can walk around with confidence. I cannot thank you enough all the staff here at Hamlin and those around the world who support this work. Believe me you all are doing the best deed. Thank you.” - Amina*

change a life this

Will you help Mohammed and Hamlin’s Patient Identification team find and treat more women like Amina – and give them hope for a new beginning?

Support our Big Give Christmas Appeal

The road to new beginnings for women with fistula and change a life this Christmas.

How it works

Donations made during the Big Give week will be matched, pound for pound. The appeal is running for seven days from midday on Tuesday 29 November until midday on Tuesday 6 December. During this time, donations made to Hamlin Fistula UK, via the Big Give website, will be doubled.

This means your donation will have twice the impact, helping to reach even more women across Ethiopia.

Thank you.

What do I need to do?

Hit the deadline

Make your donation between Tues 29 Nov and Tues 6 Dec 2022

Make your donation online at bit.ly/HiddenWomen

Donating online via the Big Give website is the only way to have your donations matched.

If you do not wish to donate online we would still appreciate your kind support. Please use the form enclosed to make a donation in the usual way.