Double your donation this Christmas and help to deliver our mission of a fistula-free Ethiopia.
You can change the lives of women in Ethiopia this Christmas.
This Christmas we’re taking part in Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023. We’re asking for your support to fund Project Zero, our transformative three-step campaign that will finally make Ethiopia fistula-free, district-by-district, once and for all.
Thanks to our generous match funders, every donation you make during the Big Give campaign gets doubled.
One donation equals twice the impact
Our aim is to raise £40,000
This money will help fund Project Zero – our most ambitious programme in decades.
Your donation will help women like Ayinalem
Ayinalem endured two days of obstructed labour, only to learn that her baby was stillborn. She left hospital heartbroken and in agonising pain from a hole in her birth canal. Ashamed of the urine that leaked out – and its smell – she shut herself off from the world.
“It was a very hard time for me, I hated myself. I could not even visit my neighbours,” Ayinalem recalls.
For months she stayed at home until she heard a Project Zero outreach announcement on the radio, encouraging women with obstetric fistula injuries to come forward.
With the help of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia staff, she finally made her way to Hamlin’s Metu Fistula Hospital where she was welcomed into a community of women who understood her pain.
“Everybody showed me love and respect that I had never expected,” says Ayinalem.
Following successful surgery her life was restored. When she left hospital, Ayinalem vowed, “When I go back to my community I want to show people that I’m cured and teach other women about obstetric fistula.”
The cost of a simple fistula repair surgery is £750 – but thanks to people like you, it is given to women like Ayinalem free of charge.
Ayinalem’s identification, transport and full treatment were all provided free of charge thanks to the generosity of Hamlin supporters.
Your donation will change the lives of women like Ayinalem, pictured, who told us…
“It was an exciting moment when I heard that I was cured and I had no words to explain my happiness!”
Can you help us fast-track the fight against fistula across Ethiopia?
There are estimated to be thousands of women across Ethiopia suffering with untreated fistula, not knowing help is available.
These women are living in pain, isolated and vulnerable. And every year, an estimated 1,000 women develop fistula after suffering an obstructed childbirth.
Our mission is to bring this number down to Zero.
Project Zero is a bold new three-step programme that will systematically end obstetric fistula in Ethiopia, once and for all.
We know it’s a big task but, with your support, it is achievable. By going from door-to-door, woreda-by-woreda (district-by-district), our goal is to:
Identify and treat: Find every last woman with obstetric fistula, including those who have hidden themselves away or been cast out by their communities.
Prevent: Give pregnant women maternal healthcare to prevent an obstructed labour that causes obstetric fistula through training and deploying more Hamlin midwives to the target areas.
Educate: Raise awareness through our national education campaign about the causes of fistula and its treatment and the importance of good maternal healthcare.
Can you help us this Christmas?
Thank you to our match funders for the appeal, The Sulney Fields Charitable Trust, whose matching funds will help us raise even more for women in Ethiopia