Abebech’s story is like that of many women in remote parts of Ethiopia. She had nothing when she arrived at a Hamlin Yirgalem fistula hospital but then she received a Comfort Package.

A ground-breaking initiative in Ethiopia is aiming to empower women who have faced years of social isolation and suffering due to devastating fistula injuries.

Leyat and her husband Amarech spent all their money searching for a cure for Leyat’s obstetric fistula injuries. Her life changed when she arrived at Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia.

2022 marks 20 years since Catherine established Desta Mender, Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia’s Rehabilitation and Reintegration Centre, where thousands of survivors of obstetric fistula have received free physiotherapy, counselling, long-term medical care and vocational training.

Thanks to the generosity of our Canadian supporters and KBF Canada, Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia has a new state-of-the-art digital X-ray machine for the Radiology Unit at Hamlin’s Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia is training fistula surgeons in best practice care, in partnership with the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO).

Here at the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation, we have been seeing incredible progress towards the fight to end fistula.

On 26 May 2022, we welcomed two exceptional new Board members to the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation team.