ABOUT
Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation
Founded by pioneering Australian surgeon, Dr Catherine Hamlin AC, Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation is an independent charity established to raise funds and awareness for Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia. We are dedicated to restoring the health and dignity of women who have survived a horrendous - and preventable - childbirth injury: obstetric fistula.
For more than six decades Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia has worked tirelessly to transform maternal health care in Ethiopia. Today, the Hamlin healthcare network has grown to include six fistula hospitals, Desta Mender rehabilitation centre, the Hamlin College of Midwives and more than 90 Hamlin-supported midwifery clinics across rural Ethiopia.
We have one goal: to eradicate obstetric fistula in Ethiopia.
What is Obstetric Fistula?
One of the worst things that can happen to a woman is an obstetric fistula.
An obstetric fistula is an internal injury in the form of a hole between the birth canal and the bladder and/or rectum and leaves women leaking urine or faeces, and sometimes both.
In Ethiopia, obstetric fistula causes untold physical and psychological pain to thousands of women.
What causes Obstetric Fistula?
Obstetric fistula is caused by a prolonged, obstructed childbirth when a woman lacks access to emergency medical care. During this time, the mother’s delicate tissues in the birth canal are destroyed while trying to give birth.
Due to a lack of quality healthcare, particularly in Ethiopia’s remote and rural regions, it is estimated that tens of thousands of women are still living with untreated obstetric fistula in Ethiopia.
Tragically, 90% of women who suffer an obstetric fistula will give birth to a stillborn baby, often after an agonising obstructed labour that has lasted several days.
More than 22,000
women in Ethiopia are living with untreated obstetric fistula injuries
Up to 1,000
new cases occur every year
Tragically, 90% of women who suffer an obstetric fistula will give birth to a stillborn baby often after an agonising obstructed labour that has lasted several days.
Who is Dr Catherine Hamlin AC?
Dr Catherine Hamlin AC was an Australian surgeon whose work for women with obstetric fistula in Ethiopia continued uninterrupted for more than half a century.
No other woman, or man, has done as much to eradicate this preventable, debilitating condition and give these women back their lives.
Guided by her Christian faith, Catherine was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and received numerous international awards and acknowledgements for her work.
She was also bestowed with Honorary Ethiopian citizenship by former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
In 2020, Catherine passed away peacefully at her home on the grounds of Hamlin’s Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, surrounded by the colleagues and patients she had loved for 60 years.
These women have suffered more than any woman should be called upon to endure. To meet only one is to be profoundly moved and calls forth the utmost compassion that the human heart is capable of feeling.”
Dr Catherine Hamlin AC
Continuing Catherine’s Journey to Eradicate Obstetric Fistula
Under Dr Catherine Hamlin’s pioneering guidance, over 82,000 Ethiopian women have had their lives transformed under the Hamlin Model of Care. We are very proud of our achievements to date, but our task is nowhere near complete.
The team at Hamlin continues to carry Catherine’s torch and vision – will you support this work and help continue Catherine’s journey?
Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Elders past, present and emerging throughout Australia and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land and waterways on which our Australian office is situated. We acknowledge the many ethnic groups in Ethiopia and their ancestral and cultural connection to the land where our work is undertaken.