by Dearne Cameron
Ethiopia – a country renowned for poverty and starvation. Dirty streets – home for so many children – where millions of people are hungry, sick, hopeless and dying. A place, it may appear, forgotten by God.
On January 21, Dr Catherine Hamlin and the President of Ethiopia, Girma Wold Giorgis, opened ‘Desta Menda’, which means the village of joy. This village will be the home for hundreds of women who have nowhere else to turn.
These young girls have been through the ordeal of having a fistula. Fistulas are abnormal openings in the body caused during childbirth. Prolonged and unrelieved pressure on the woman’s pelvic wall causes a puncture in the bladder.
Dr Catherine Hamlin spoke of a group of young patients whose injuries are so severe that they were unable to be cured by surgery and who need constant care and a permanent home near the hospital. She talked of her dream of one day having a village for these women, where they could live together as a community, in some ways similar to the villages from where they had come.
The village is to be self-sufficient and provide fresh produce to the Fistula Hospital, greatly reducing the hospital’s food costs.
With 8,600 new cases every year the demand on the hospital continues at a phenomenal rate. Women that are able, walk for days to get to the hospital – some carried by a father or brother – these girls have a chance, but there are still many women who do not reach help and die as a result of their injuries.
Dr Catherine Hamlin and the hospital team have been repairing damaged little bodies for over 40 years. The damage Dr Hamlin repairs is usually the result of children becoming mothers and their little bodies are unable to cope.
Dr Hamlin says ‘it is not unusual for these young girls to have been in labour for up to five days, most of their babies die, and then they are outcast’.
The Diocese of Sydney was represented at the opening by Mrs Christine Jensen. “The image that is imprinted in my memory from the visit to Ethiopia is that of the young Ethiopian women who arrive at the hospital desperate, searching for relief from the humiliation and grief that having a fistula presents,” Mrs Jensen said. “To see the relief on their faces when they realise that they are not alone in their suffering and that in the not-too-distant future they will be helped is a humbling experience.
“My heart ached for one Ethiopian woman who had five children like me but had suffered a fistula and the stillbirth of her sixth child. She is longing to return to her family who are suffering from the famine.
“As an Australian it is hard to imagine the isolation and risk that surrounds childbirth. The women of Ethiopia have long births, stillborn babies and suffer the most humiliating injuries imaginable.
“I was touched by the hospital, its staff and the patients. It was incredible to see how the fistula hospital gives these girls a second chance. While they are at the hospital they learn to read – they most enjoy the pictorial stories of Joseph, Mary and the birth of Jesus. When they leave they take a children’s Bible with them. They love the pictures that bring the stories to life.
“I witnessed the depth of faith in the people of Ethiopia, the expression of faith in the staff and the love that was clearly shared through the spirit of God.”
The Fistula hospital can be supported through the Archbishop’s Overseas and Relief Fund. ph: 1800 653 903
