News Archive - June 2004

NEWSLETTER
from
Dr Catherine Hamlin AC
Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia
June 2004

Dear Friends,

It is June already, and almost half the year has gone by! So this is another letter to greet you, and to encourage you too, I hope.

We need to pause in the middle of this year, and thank God for all his wonderful blessings - that He has showered upon us, on our hospital and our expanding projects. Perhaps the greatest news is this expanding work. These last few months have, I think, been the busiest we have ever had, with the numbers of patients arriving for treatment. This has certainly made us even more committed to our new outreach program, and all it will accomplish by allowing patients to reach our mini-fistula hospitals from every corner of the country.

We can report that one of these centres, in the grounds of the Bahr Dar Regional Hospital, is now finished, and ready for us to commence using. It is a 20-30 bed ward with an operating room. It also has its own kitchen and laundry.

Solomon Abebe
Solomon is the new staff member who will coordinate the development and administration of the Outreach Centres.

Ruth made a recent trip to the Centre to meet officials and to sign the agreement documents! She took our male-nurse coordinator who is the latest member of our staff, Solomon Abebe. He will have the special task of coordinating the work at each of the regional Fistula Centres.

Solomon is trained as a Health Officer and as a mid-wife, so he is well qualified to do this special job. He has already shown himself to be competent and committed to help the "fistula" women. Being a man, he will be able to travel to each centre by local transport (mostly by bus). He already has an office here in our new building, at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, where we also have a store and pharmacy especially for these Centres.

Each centre, when it is completed, will be connected by phone direct to Solomon's office. We understand that 25 women arrived recently from the countryside, around Bahr Dar. They thought we had already started work at the new Fistula Centre! This shows how news spreads so quickly here, and it is an indication of the tremendous need for such a Centre. All these women patients have been given appointments for later.

Our immediate need is to furnish the ward and equip the theatre. Some of the equipment has already been ordered from the U.K., such as two operating tables, lights, autoclave and sterilisers. Most of the other things for the ward can be made locally. We are fortunate to have financial help from a generous, Trust in England that is paying for this equipment, and will later cover running costs for this Centre.

Mekelle - Hamlin Fistula® Centre
Since I started writing this letter Ruth and Solomon have also visited Mekelle (which is in the Province of Tigray about 1,500 kms north of Addis Ababa).

The new centre will be built in the existing grounds of the Mekelle regional hospital. It is vital for us to have a written Agreement with the Tigray Bureau of Health, before we start any building. Ruth has managed to do this. In fact she had a very warm and encouraging reception from the Head of the Health Bureau in Mekelle, and from all the senior staff of the regional hospital.

As you will know by now, our Australian Fund, with some help from AusAID, hope to be able to provide the money needed to build this centre.

Stuart Abrahams, our Australian Representative came to the Partners' Conference. Some of the other Australian Trustees also came, at their own expense, because they had not seen the Hospital or Desta Mender. While they were here, they too had an opportunity to see the land at Mekelle, and to study the plans.

Our Ethiopian Architect is now making a few alterations to the plans for the Centre and they should be finalised in a few weeks. We will then ask Mr Varnero to give a firm quote to build it.

Thirtieth Anniversary Celebrations

It is now 30 years since we opened our Hospital on May 24th 1974. I remember that day, very well. My husband and I cut a ribbon, alone in our drawing room to declare the hospital open! It was just the time of the Emperor's overthrow, so we could not celebrate publicly, nor did we feel like it, with such devastating changes taking place in the Government.

So we decided to have a celebration here this year for the 30 years that have passed since we cut that ribbon! This celebration we held on May 1st, choosing this date because some of our overseas Trustees were already here for a two-day Partners' Conference at the end of April. They were discussing our future policies with our own Trustees, so that together we can have closer collaboration with future plans and our financial aims. It was a valuable opportunity to have input from our supporters and to get to know each other. The Conference was stimulating and encouraging.

We deliberately planned our 30th Anniversary celebrations while they were all here. It was a wonderful day. Many visitors and distinguished guests came, not only from overseas, but also from Ethiopia as well, friends of many years who have watched the growth of this work, and others who contribute financially, such as the representatives from the World Vision office here.

We also welcomed guests from AusAID who flew up from South Africa and the Australian Deputy High Commissioner from our Embassy in Nairobi. One special visitor from Charlotte, North Carolina - Deborah Harris, flew all the way here, just for 3 days, to be with us!

The whole day was relaxed and enjoyable. Speeches of welcome were made. All our guests, our staff and many ambulatory patients sat in hired chairs in our court yard, some told stories about special patients, others stories about amusing occasions.

A play was enacted by some ex-street youths, who had been trained in drama. The play portrayed a fistula patient begging in the streets of Addis Ababa. It was rather like the story of the Good Samaritan where everyone passed by on the other side - in this case, holding their noses, because of her smell! Finally the "Good Samaritan" brought her to our Hospital, and we then saw her leaving in joy, in new clothes, with money for her bus fare and hope in her heart for the future! It was well done and very moving! Some of our patients, who were watching, began crying as they had themselves, been through such experiences of rejection.

Our Builder Mr Alberto Varnero
Our own kind builder Mr Varnero needs a special mention. He was here for the Anniversary celebrations, and we were able to thank him personally, as did our Trustees, for his great generosity in giving us the building at Bahr Dar.

He actually built the "Bahr Dar - Hamlin Fistula® Centre" with his own money, in memory of his father. Our gratitude to him is great. Since 1998 his firm has done all our buildings and improvements and his firm built Desta Mender Village, as well.

But the Centre at Bahr Dar was his gift to the fistula patients of Ethiopia. We plan to put a plaque on the wall mentioning this fact.

Visit to Desta Mender
After the Celebrations, some of our guests went out in a bus to Desta Mender, where they were welcomed by the staff, and had a chance to see the progress being made by the girls.

The gardens are beautiful now, and a lot more vegetables are being grown.

We have employed a gifted handicraft teacher to help the girls. We hope to be able to display, and sell, more of the beautiful things they are making. They have done embroidery work on table clothes, pillowcases, and bedspreads with attractive block printing designs. Their work has improved so quickly, since the handicraft teacher commenced.

Dr Gordon Williams - from Hammersmith Hospital
Soon another 3-4 girls will be going from here to live at the Village. They had their operations done while Dr Gordon Williams was here for a weekend only recently.

He arrived on the Saturday morning, and came straight to the theatre. He drank three cups of strong coffee, then did three operations, resting between 4pm and 6pm. Then he took us all out for dinner to his favourite Italian Restaurant in Addis Ababa. Next morning he caught his 1:00am flight back to London.

All his three operations were successful and the patients are now very well and happy!

Gordon always arrives with three big laundry bags full of clothes, shoes and other gifts for the patients, and he often brings us some medical equipment, as well. In another sort of cold-box bag he has chocolates, bacon, and cheese for us and usually a steak for Andrew! This adds to the enjoyment of his visits!

We are so grateful for all he does to help these severely injured young mothers. Fortunately, women with these extensive injuries, are only a very small proportion of all our patients.

I think Gordon enjoys his visits, and is planning another longer one in October.

One more piece of happy news, one of our doctors, Dr Haile Georgis was recently married. We had a chance to personally meet his beautiful bride at a little party we had here, and to give them some wedding presents!

I could write so much more news - about our beloved patients and the good work being done for them by all our staff, from the laundry girls to the doctors! I wish you could see the kindness and concern that our staff show to these poor patients. Yesterday I was particularly touched by the care being given by one of our nursing aides to a very sick patient- it was a true labour of love.

Thank you once again for your help, for your concern, and especially for your prayers, as you and we here too, intercede to God for these girls in their great need.

With my love,

Dr Catherine Hamlin AC