News Archive - February 2005

From Dr Catherine Hamlin AC

My dear friends in Australia,

There is much to tell you in this overdue newsletter, but first of all I want thank you for continuing to be such supporters of our work, through your prayers, your generosity and your interest. It is wonderful to know that you are supporting us, this gives us great encouragement for all our new projects and future plans to help more patients. More and more women and girls are coming for treatment. Yesterday I saw five patients in our outpatients department. Everyone had such sad stories and in such need.

A few weeks ago one young girl came with her father. He was a poor farmer with broken sandals on his feet and ragged trousers. They had travelled a long distance from near Lalibella. When I asked him, 'How did you find money for such a long journey?' he replied, 'I sold my only ploughing ox', 'How can you now do your farming?' I said to him. He then replied 'I love my daughter and I want her to be healed'. This touched our hearts, as we saw these two sitting in the outpatients with so much hope and trust in our ability to help them.

Amazingly, the next day we had some tourists visiting us from Britain, and after hearing this story, they gave me the money for them to buy a new ox. Father and daughter have now gone home….. both restored!

Bahr Dar Hamlin Fistula® Centre
The Bahr Dar Fistula Centre is open and very busy. The official Opening Ceremony will be on 16th February. Dr Andrew Browning is there now and Dr Haile was there earlier. By mid-January, we had seen 71 patients and operated on 32 of them. The patients are arriving in a steady stream. Dr Andrew is enjoying this work, and has praise for our two nurses in charge and the 10 nursing aides.

Teaching for prevention
From this centre, trips are being made to the surrounding villages and Health centres for teaching. This is a start with the enormous task of trying to help prevent these tragic injuries occurring. The same teaching program will be carried out from all of our centres when they are fully operative.

Yirgalem and Mekelle: Buildings commenced.
The construction of two more centres, the one at Yirgalem and the other at Mekelle, has now begun. Both of these Centres will be completed this year and I will let you know when they are functioning. We are quite excited by the progress being made, and with the designs of these buildings.

Our Australian Fund is paying for the cost of the building and then the cost of running the Mekelle Centre.

Oprah Winfrey's visit to the Hospital
Another piece of exciting news was the visit by Oprah Winfrey last December. She was coming for one day and only to see our patients and our Hospital!

She gave us permission to invite the Mayor of Addis Ababa, Ato Arkebe Okubay, to the Hospital for that very special day. The Mayor and his wife came to the lunch we had prepared in the garden. The only other guests were our own Trustees and of course all our staff.

Oprah arrived with a cavalcade of cars and police outriders on huge motorbikes. She got out near the entrance and walked in to the car park area and greeted me with a big hug and said 'I promised I would come!'

Oprah, her staff and camera crew then toured the Hospital. The first thing she did was to speak to one of the patients that had just arrived. She listened to the story from this16 year old sitting in the outpatients department. After that, Oprah went into the main ward and gave out lavish presents to every patient and then to those in the Hostels.

During lunch, the beautiful wife of our Mayor, Woizero Nigisti, presented Oprah with a lovely national dress and shawl. Oprah, immediately went into a nearby room and came out, looking stunning. She carried off everything with great poise and ease.

Her sympathy and kindness was evident as she met the patients. Sometimes she sat on their beds and listened to their stories. The girts spoke haltingly and nervously, overcome by so much attention and so many gifts.

After lunch, Oprah 'Opened' our latest new building. It is not quite finished, but we made it look nice, borrowing big shrubs in pots. We
had a plaque in place on one wall, draped with fine muslin shammas (shawls). The plaque named the building after her.

It was fortunate that we were able to have the Mayor. He has done so much to help us and made it possible for us to receive the land where the new building is standing. He has shown great interest in our Hospital.

Oprah then went with the Mayor and his wife to the City Hall where she was given the key of the city. So ended this exciting visit.

We understand that a film of her visit will be shown sometime in March.

A Chief Executive officer appointed
Finally I want to tell you the great news about the appointment of a Chief Executive Officer. There is not enough space to tell you how we found Mark Bennett, but we have no doubt that it was through divine intervention for us.

We had followed the correct procedure and advertised the position both locally and overseas. There were 14 applicants. Our Board of Trustees reviewed all of their CV's and Mark came out well ahead. I am pleased that he is an Australian, with all the credentials and experience that we need for this position. For the last 10 years Mark has worked with CMS in Cairo. For the first 8 years he managed a Relief Program for refugees, a large component of which was medical care. For the last 2 years he worked on the development of a management structure for the Diocesan organisations, the largest of which was for a Diocesan Hospital at Mendouf. Mark has a Masters degree in Business Administration.

We need a well-qualified and experienced person for this position. The work of the Hospital has expanded enormously. It is no longer a small family affair.

Mark made a great impression when he visited us briefly in January. He spent three or four days here getting to know us and we him. In May, this year, we are looking forward to welcoming him, with his wife Annette (who is a midwife) and their four children.

Ajaboush's visit home
I would like to tell you about Ajaboush. Dr Ambaye found her about seven years ago when on a medical safari in the Metu region.

Ajaboush had been in a dark room, on a mud bench as her bed for six years with a fistula. She was crippled with contractions of the knees and hips, as well as having fistulae in the bladder and rectum. The calcium in her bones had gone and she was in a pitiable state. When she first arrived she was very psychologically disturbed. This lasted for about a year. But now she is a changed girl, able to walk after months of physiotherapy and her incontinence cured. For this to happen she needed an ileal conduit and she is now living at the Desta Mender Village.

Last year Dr Ambaye took her back to her village for a visit, because Ambaye was operating at the Metu regional hospital for a week and Ajaboush came from that area.

When Ajaboush arrived at her village, it was as if she had been 'resurrected' from the dead. Nobody had visited her, in fact, they thought she had died! So for the relatives to see her getting out of the Land Rover, dressed with a yellow cardigan she had knitted herself, with a white skirt and 'trainers' on both feet, it was like a miracle!

Ajaboush then spent the week with her family and friends and then had to return to Desta Mender for ongoing medical care.

While Ambaye and her team were at Metu, they operated on 30 fistula patients and sent another 21 patients to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital for surgery. Ambaye also ran an 'Awareness Campaign'

It was a successful safari in every way!

We have had a wonderful year and we thank God for His lavish gifts showered upon us. Surely we have been blessed with His love and mercy for staff and patients alike. I know that it is only because God loves these women, that we succeed.

My love to you all.

(Dr.) Catherine Hamlin

A 'Good News' success story - a life worth saving
Tsehay grew up in the area of Wolkito, which is south-west from Addis Ababa.

She has 2 sisters and one brother. Her parents are still alive. At the age of nine, she started leaking urine from her bladder. This was the result of a bad tuberculosis infection, which eventually caused a fistula.

It was a few years later before she came to the hospital where her problem was diagnosed. By this time the infection had destroyed most of her bladder and was starting to affect her kidneys as well.

The Fistula Hospital was able to operate and she ended up with an ileal conduit, and a pouch on the skin of her abdomen to collect the urine. That was almost 6 years ago. Teshay was only 12 years of age when she had this surgery. At the time Dr Hamlin sent a photo of this very pretty young girl, with the simple caption "A life worth saving".

Tsehay, who will be 18 this year, naturally is upset about her condition and wishes that she could have a normal life with her family and friends. However, she knows that compared to the condition that she was in, it is great to be alive and well.

She now lives within the Hospital complex and goes to classes in the evenings, studying at Yimane Brehan Elementary school. She is in Grade 5.

During the day, she works in the pathology laboratory taking blood, collecting urine samples etc and helping Tenangne who is the Laboratory technician.

Tsehay's mother has now moved to Addis Ababa and lives in the market area. The rest of her family are still living in the country and Tsehay visits them from time to time.

Her life was certainly saved by having the tuberculosis infection treated and the surgery for the ileal conduit. Tsehay, though somewhat restricted, now has a great future with many opportunities ahead of her. Perhaps one day she will train to be a laboratory technician.

Australian Governments' Gift to Ethiopia
In the current publication of the AusAID Magazine 'Focus' it is reported that the Australian Government has waived Ethiopia's debt to Australia of $7.9 million.

The decision was taken after Ethiopia successfully prepared comprehensive, poverty-reduction strategies. Ethiopia will devote resources freed up by the waiving of its debts, to such areas as health and education and investment in the country's infrastructure.