Elfinish has been running her shop for the last three years, where she sells a wide variety of products needed for life in the rural Ethiopian town of Begi. You could find just about anything you need in her small shop – from spices to soap, cooking oil to safety pins. Although Elfinish’s shop may be small, it allows her to lead a life of independence and means everything for her and her 10-year-old daughter Netsanet – who is in year six at school.

Elfinish’s shop is located just outside her hometown in the northwest of Ethiopia. She moved away from home in her early twenties when she got married, and gave birth to Netsanet shortly thereafter. It wasn’t until Elfinish’s second pregnancy six years ago that she began to face complications. After enduring a prolonged labour, Elfinish was faced with the agony of losing her child and suffering a double fistula.

In need of treatment, Elfinish made the journey to Hamlin’s Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia’s capital where she underwent a series of treatment procedures. Although most obstetric fistula injuries can be treated with a single surgery that can take less than an hour, Elfinish’s injury was so severe that she required a treatment program that spanned six years, including several complicated surgeries.

“Because of this injury I get divorced, discriminated by my own family, unable to follow up my only daughter, I used to lead a desperate life in general. But Hamlin has fixed not only the injury but also my life. No words of mouth have the potential to express my gratitude”.

Elfinish

The road to rehabilitation

For many fistula survivors, their injuries aren’t merely physical. This is why every woman who undergoes fistula surgery at one of the six Hamlin hospitals also receives counselling, physiotherapy and basic literacy and numeracy lessons as part of The Hamlin Model of Care. But for long-term fistula patients like Elfinish, the damage and suffering caused by obstetric fistula means they require additional support.

Elfinish who had not only lost her child, but was socially isolated, shunned by her husband and family and left without a source of income, was not in a position to return home, even after a successful surgery that repaired her fistula injury.

Instead, Elfinish moved to Desta Mender, Hamlin’s rehabilitation centre that provides ongoing treatment and skills training to long-term fistula survivors. Here, she received an individually tailored program to equip her with the skills needed to reintegrate into her community and lead a life of independence.

A new start

While at Desta Mender, Elfinish took classes on business management which gave her the tools she needed to run her own small business. She was given a £350 start-up grant, to open her shop in Begi. Three years later and Elfinish has a stable source of income that allows her to provide for her daughter Netsanet.

Elfinish is now in regular contact with her family who have welcomed her back and regularly visit her shop. In fact, her strength of character and ability to overcome adversity has really inspired her older brother Gezahgan who moved to Begi to be closer to his sister. Through the hard work Elfinesh has put into her business over the past three years, she now has an independent and better life with her own income to live on. The shop is her workplace during daytime and a home for herself and her daughter by night. Being reintegrated near to their home village and gaining economic independence has changed their lives

“Hamlin restored my life and I am now a happy, independent and confident woman. The change in my life has brought back the lost relationship with my family and a very good social life within the neighbourhood”.

Elfinish

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