Submitted by Julie Backhouse - Rotary Club of Bairnsdale Sunrise
The Rotary Club of Bairnsdale Sunrise recently held a Hamlin High Tea to raise funds for the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation. The afternoon was hosted by Bill and Jen Flack in their beautiful garden.
.jpg) | .jpg) |
This provided a wonderful opportunity to enjoy each other’s company, eat delicious food and to raise funds for a very worthy cause. Those members of Sunrise who were not able to attend made donations to the foundation. We are thrilled to advise that through all the generous donations we were able to raise an amazing $1,035.00.
Catherine Hamlin has spent almost 60 years devoting her time and life to changing the lives of more than 50,000 women in Ethiopia, helping them regain their health and dignity through the repair of devastating childbirth injuries. Based on the success in Ethiopia they are now taking their clinical excellence and model of care to Uganda, where up to 200,000 women are living with obstetric fistula which leaves them incontinent, humiliated and cut off from their communities.
Our donations help in so many ways:
- $30 could transport a woman in obstructed labour to the nearest hospital by ambulance
- $200 could recruit a new student from a remote area to become a Hamlin midwife
- $780 could stock one of the Hamlin midwifery clinics with medical supplies for a year.
- $700 supports a single standard fistula operation, or $1,300 for a more complex surgery following severe injury
In 2018 the foundation in Ethiopia achieved the following:
- Examined 4,443 women through outpatient clinics and referring 1,011 complicated pregnancies to hospitals
- Provided 1,668 major life changing surgeries
- Graduated 20 Hamlin midwives with another 92 students in training
- Supported 125 Hamlin midwives working in 36 remote Ethiopian clinics
- Helped 607 patients successfully complete skills training and education
