Visit
to the
January 2006
By Whitney Tilson, WTilson@tilsonfunds.com
My parents lived in Ethiopia for eight years and during one of my visits there
introduced me to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, an amazing, inspirational
place founded by an Australian gynecologist, Dr. Catherine Hamlin, and her late
husband to heal women suffering from the terrible childbirth injury, an obstetric
fistula. She has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and I view her
as the Mother Teresa of
I now serve on the board of the Fistula Foundation, which
raises money to support the work of the hospital (the original hospital I visited
has now expanded to include a number of satellite hospitals around
Please read two wonderful Op Eds by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, Alone and Ashamed and The Illiterate Surgeon. I also suggest seeing Dr. Hamlin’s appearance on Oprah (click here for a transcript of the show, which brought Oprah and the audience to tears).
Four of us flew to
This is the fistula sufferer and surgeon who Nick Kristof wrote about in The Illiterate Surgeon
Patients hanging out, waiting for their surgery. The woman sitting on the right was crippled by her childbirth injuries, but is now walking using the walker near her.
This woman really wanted her picture taken, so I obliged!
These six pictures are hanging in the surgical ward. The first one (on the right) shows the woman being married off. The one to the left shows the hard work that young girls do.
The 3rd picture (on the right) shows the agonizing labor. The 4th shows the result: a fistula that leaves her incontinent (see the puddle of urine on the floor; also, the woman on the left who is holding her nose and slipping food in).
The woman's family finally sends her away in the 5th picture on the right.
The final one shows her being welcomed back, having been healed by the
These women are recovering from surgery.
While they wait for their surgery or recuperate from it, the women, who in many cases, have been completely isolated for years, spend time with each other and enjoy the beautiful gardens.
Sister Ruth Kennedy, who helps run the Hospital, with a patient.
In very rare cases like this one, a woman suffers a fistula, but the baby somehow survives.
The woman on the left had a fistula, a brain tumor and is blind -- talk about a triple whammy! The hospital healed her fistula and removed the tumor, so she's going to be OK.
Sister Ruth with a Somali woman, who was healed as well. She
rolled up her sleaves and showed us her arms, which were covered in scars from
bullet and shrapnel wounds -- the perils of being caught in the crossfire of