News Archive - June 2005

From Dr Catherine Hamlin AC

Dear Friends in Australia,

I feel very near to you all at present, having recently returned from a 6 week holiday stay in our own beautiful country of Australia. As always I feel refreshed and enthused by the welcome, the interest and amazing fund-raising efforts of all of you to help the work of the Fistula Hospital!

More Support from Schools
I was enormously encouraged and touched by visits to two girls' schools in Sydney, Kambala at Rose Bay and Roseville College. Both these visits will live long in my memory as very special. I hope some of the students will read this newsletter!

In the last Newsletter I mentioned the tremendous support we have received from a number of Schools and Colleges, particularly from Abbotsleigh at Wahroonga and Loreto at Normanhurst. We are still receiving the beautiful shawls made by the Abbotsleigh girls. To-day I saw another two huge boxes arrive at our hospital by DHL post. The whole compound is so colourful with nearly every patient walking about or sitting on the lawn with one of these shawls around their shoulders. They are so appreciated. I cannot imagine how we managed before the advent of such gifts. It is a cultural practice for women to have something round their shoulders.

New Zealand Fundraising Partner
While in Australia it was possible to visit New Zealand for 5 days. We have a good friend Mr Morton Fountain in Christchurch, who with a group of associates is setting up a 'Hamlin Fistula® Charitable Trust', in New Zealand, to support the Hospital.

This is an exciting development and I know my late husband Reg, who was a New Zealander, would have been so pleased! There are a number of people in New Zealand who generously help us, some give through our Australian Fund. It will be early next year before the NZ Fund is officially launched, and in due course the Fund expects to obtain income tax exemption on donations in that country.

Honorary Doctorate from Sydney University
Dr Catherine Hamlin AC, processing into the Great Hall at Sydney University with Mr David Hoare the Pro Chancellor.

The main reason for my trip to Australia was to receive an honour from my own University of Sydney, a Doctor of Medicine (Honoris Causa) degree. This impressive ceremony was held on March 15th in the Great Hall and was a wonderful occasion, although I feel it was quite an undeserved honour. However this may help to draw attention to the needs of our poor patients, and so I shall be pleased and satisfied if this is so.

It was exciting to have many members of my family present and many friends. It was a great honour also to have the Governor of NSW there.

One of our Ethiopian doctors from the Hospital, Dr Biruk Taffesse, was also in the audience. This was a great pleasure for me. Biruk had been in Adelaide speaking at a medical conference for doctors and nurses dealing with patients with abdominal stomas. He was able to fly to Sydney to be at my special evening, before flying back to Ethiopia.

Dr Biruk stayed with Stuart Abrahams who with his wife Billie showed him the sights of Sydney and our lovely beaches. I think, like all Ethiopians, he now has a warm place in his heart for Australia!

Ethiopian Easter
In Ethiopia we have just celebrated Easter which was May 1st, much later this year than usual. So, at the Hospital, we had our own Easter Service and celebrations on May 3rd. This was a lovely occasion with our Chapel overflowing with staff. The Chapel looked beautiful too, with flowers, and candles on either side of a lovely, carved Ethiopian Coptic Cross.

Our senior staff of doctors and nurses took the service of readings, prayers and songs. An old friend gave the address. He has spoken at many of our previous services, and recently painted a lovely picture of the woman who just touched the garment of our Lord and was healed. We now have the picture in our post-operative ward. It surely is appropriate for our patients!

After the service we all had lunch in the garden. The kitchen excelled with delicious food in abundance!

We are having unseasonably wet weather! May is usually a dry and hot month. However, the rain has made no difference to the daily arrival of new patients! All our hostels are full and again we have two patients in some beds. We have had to send many others out to Desta Mender, as a sort of half way house, with an appointment to come back for their operation on a given date.

Visit by Professor Gordon Williams
Last week was a busy one. Our friend and colleague Professor Gordon Williams came to operate on patients who need a urologist. Some needed a nephrectomy and others an ileal conduit. Dr Williams was also teaching our own surgeons and imparting some of his surgical techniques to them. He was impressed by the aptitude of his pupils! We enjoyed his stay, his teaching, and his great concern for our patients and the welfare of our hospital.

We went for an enjoyable picnic with him and other friends and visitors, looking out over a stunning view into a deep river valley with eagles and kites circling overhead and a troop of baboons gazing at us as we ate our picnic lunch.

We heard such a sad story from one of the locals. There is a lime stone quarry in the valley with a cable car system to bring the limestone up to the top for it to be taken by truck to the cement works. Local people wanting a lift to the top use these little buckets. A girl of 15, who lived in this deep valley, had been 3 days in labour and was put into one, but died on the way up. I just hope she was not alone for such a terrifying and lonely death.

Mark Bennett commencing in June
Mark & Annette and their children, Alleytia, Dylan, Lewis & Martin

Mr. Mark Bennett our new Chief Executive Officer will arrive early in June. The Hospital with its subsidiary establishments and International connections, now has a large business side to attend to. We are looking forward to having Mark with his experience and expertise to be in charge and running this aspect of the Hospital.

We have been busy getting his office furnished and ready for him. His wife Annette and their four children will arrive about a month later when the Australian school term ends. They will occupy the big house, which was originally built for a doctor with three children, so there will be room enough for this quite large family.

I hope they will all be happy here. I know they will get a warm welcome from all our staff. But, it is unfortunate that they will arrive in the rainy season when Ethiopia is seen at its worst!

Ethiopians in the USA want to help
Dr Andrew Browning is flying to Bahr Dar with one of our Ethiopian Trustees, who wants to see this Centre and report on it when he visits America, shortly. Our American Fundraising Partner has agreed to pay for the next new Fistula Centre to be built at Harar.

It is important for our Trustee to be able to speak especially to the Ethiopian community in Washington and other big cities, on the great need for these satellite fistula Centres. You will be pleased to know that the Ethiopian communities in the USA are taking a special interest in what we are doing.

Bahr Dar Fistula Centre
There is now, a greater number of patients coming to the Bahr Dar Centre, needing surgery.

We are indeed greatly encouraged by the good work done so far at Bahr Dar, and the wonderful way our nursing aides (who were previously patients and trained here) are looking after their 'sisters'. They are doing such worthwhile work. The two nursing sisters in charge are full of praise for their ability and dedication.

All of them will be so pleased to see Dr. Andrew again. He has a special place in their hearts!

Mekelle Fistula Centre
Ruth Kennedy and I are soon to again visit Mekelle. We want to interview possible staff and give a further report on the building and planning.

Good progress with the Mekelle building. Photo early May 2005.

Our Australian Fund has already made two progress payments. Our Architect expects the construction side to be completed by the end of October. It will then take a two or three months to install furniture and equipment.

A wonderful answer to prayer
Emembet, the wife of another of our Ethiopian doctors, Dr Haile, developed severe and life threatening toxaemia of pregnancy at 32 weeks gestation. An urgent caesarean section was done.

A small premature live baby was delivered, but Emebet's life was in danger. She was comatose, blind and having eclamptic fits. But God has given back her life and she has made a complete recovery. She has spent a happy week with her husband at Desta Mender to convalesce. Unfortunately her tiny baby daughter died after three days. Despite this, Dr Haile is so thankful that his wife is normal again! We all are.

We are all feeling overwhelmed at the momentwith the enormous number of patients arriving.
There is a great need for more Ethiopian doctors to be trained. Please pray that there will be more dedicated doctors willing to work here and to give their lives to help more young women in their desperate plight. Especially as there will be an increased need for doctors and staff at the new outreach centres we are building.

Let me thank you once again for the great support you give us from Australia. With my love to all.

(Dr.) Catherine Hamlin

From Dr Andrew Browning

Earlier this year Dr Andrew Browning with his wife Stephanie went to the Bahr Dar Fistula Centre to work together for a short time, at the Centre.

Andrew wrote, "Bahr Dar is situated at the source of the Blue Nile at Lake Tana. It is where Stephanie and I spent our honeymoon. The new Hospital unit is lovely. There is some talk that we might go up there permanently to run the Centre in the future."

Since the trip with Stephanie, Andrew has been driving the nine-hour trip to the Bahr Dar Centre to work there for about 7-10 days each month.

More and more patients keep coming. When you hear their stories you realise just how needed these fistula outreach centres are. Andrew has been studying the mental health of the fistula patients. All are strongly depressed before treatment, most with thoughts of suicide and some that had attempted to suicide. Once they are treated they are transformed and full of joy!

One woman had a fistula for 15 years and had been referred to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital but never went. When asked why, she said she 'could never get the money for such a big journey!' It is a bus trip that takes about one day!

Another young girl arrived at Bahr Dar after a 3-day bus trip from an area, called Wollo. Had she travelled from Wollo to Addis Ababa it would have taken only 2 days! Andrew asked her why she didn't make the shorter trip to Addis and she replied that 'she was too scared to go to Addis. It is such a big city and she wouldn't be able to find the hospital.' Both patients were cured and delighted to go back home, dry.

The Bahr Dar Fistula Centre is also trying to prevent fistulae occurring. A workshop to train birth attendants is planned and high-risk pregnant women will be able to come to the centre to wait until they deliver their baby. A few women have done this. As the centre becomes more widely known, many other expectant, high-risk mothers will come as well. Since the Bahr Dar Fistula Centre was opened more than 100 fistula patients have been treated and cured.

Andrew has just sent an email, 'Both Stephanie and I are rejoicing and delighted that she is pregnant. Stephanie is at present going to language school full time. This will be invaluable if we both move to Bahr Dar next year, to run the unit'.

Reprint of book 'Heaven's Scent' An ideal gift for a friend. The first edition of this classic sold out in record time and the net proceeds was given by Dr Thompson to the Hospital. The author has just released the second edition. 'Heaven's Scent' -- a Celebration of Flowers A collection of poems and sayings, hard full coloured jacket decorated with floral motifs. Compiled by Dr Sarah Louise Thompson. Price $24.95 Available from fine book-sellers. (Mail order add postage etc $3.55) or * Parker's Nursery, 45-47 Tennyson Ave., Turramurra 2074 Phone: 02 9487 3888 * Peribo Fine Books 58 Beaumont Rd., Mt Kuringai. 2080 02 9457 0011or Fax: 02 9457 0022; Email: peribo@bigpond.com These shops are kindly handling book sales, without charge. The net proceed will again go to the work of the Fistula Hospital