YOUR IMPACT
Do it for her!
By taking part in Hamlin Barefoot Walk you will walk alongside a woman with devastating childbirth injuries as she embarks on her healing journey.
In Ethiopia, nearly 80% of people live in rural areas. Half of all Ethiopian women give birth at home with no medical supervision, often leading to complications resulting in horrific childbirth injuries like obstetric fistula.
Imagine if this happened to your daughter, your sister, your friend?
Your fundraising will support the life-changing work of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, and help to treat a woman suffering a debilitating childbirth injury - obstetric fistula.
Our country [Ethiopia] is very mountainous and it’s difficult to traverse. The average walk for our patients is two days to a main road and so their difficulties are enormous."
- Dr Catherine Hamlin AC
Emnet’s life hung in the balance. Having fallen into a coma during a lengthy, agonising home birth, she was carried on a home-made stretcher in the rain to the nearest hospital.
Doctors managed to save her life but Emnet’s baby was stillborn and she had sustained devastating obstetric fistula injuries. Emnet leaked urine uncontrollably and couldn’t move her legs.
“Back then I felt like I am dead. I learned that I faced fistula… I became incontinent. I try to control but I can’t. My legs felt weak and unmoving.”
On average, women in Ethiopia walk 25 kms to seek medical assistance, often barefoot over difficult terrain.
Emnet was transferred to Hamlin’s Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital for specialist fistula treatment, but she was too weak for surgery. After five months of specialised, holistic care and hard work, Emnet was strong enough for life-changing fistula surgery.
Emnet’s entire treatment was free of charge, thanks to supporters like you.
“I feel so happy to be back home. I used to be a burden to my little children. But now I am strong. Neighbours would say a dead person came back alive.”
This is the impact your support can make.
How your fundraising helps her
In most cases, an obstetric fistula can be repaired with a single life-changing surgery lasting no more than two hours.
At Hamlin’s six hospitals in Ethiopia, women receive treatment and loving care free of charge, thanks to kind-hearted people like you.
The minimum fundraising goal we ask you to set is $1,500 - the cost of an obstetric fistula repair surgery which will restore the life of one woman.
Every year, 1,000 women sustain preventable obstetric fistula injuries in Ethiopia.
EVERY WOMAN MATTERS.
Whether a half marathon, a weekend run or a bush walk, will you walk for charity and help restore the health and dignity of 30 women? You will give them the opportunity to regain their lives.
My dream is to eradicate obstetric fistula from Ethiopia. I won’t achieve this in my lifetime, but you can in yours.”
- Dr Catherine Hamlin AC
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.