Angola

In Angola, less than half of women give birth with a skilled medical professional present—putting women at risk for developing obstetric fistula.

Why We Work in Angola

Angola was devastated by a decades-long civil war that ended in 2002. The country’s peace contributed to its own “baby boom,” but Angola’s health infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the needs of its burgeoning population. Despite the country’s wealth in natural resources, health indicators are grim: Angola has one of the world’s highest fertility rates and lowest life expectancy.

While the country has been striving to reduce maternal mortality, it still lacks adequate maternal health services and emergency obstetric care for women. Today less than half of women give birth with a skilled medical professional present, putting women at significant risk for childbirth injury such as obstetric fistula should complications arise.

What You Help Us Do

We are investing in the following areas to build Angola’s in-country medical services and provide life-transforming surgery to as many women as possible:

Cost of Fistula Surgeries
Community Outreach
Surgeon Training

Meet Our Partners

We identify local surgical teams in Angola already successfully treating women with fistula—and then work to amplify their efforts. 

Who are our current partners?

Centro Evangelico de Medicina de Lubango (CEML)

  • Location: Lubango
  • Partner Since: 2009

Kalukembe Hospital

  • Location: Lubango
  • Partner Since: 2016

Unidade Fistula Obstetrica (UFO)

  • Location: Cuito, Huambo, Luanda, and Luena
  • Partner Since: 2013

Votoka

  • Location: Cuito
  • Partner Since: 2024
How much funding have we granted?

Below are funding totals since the start of each partnership.

Current Partners

  • Centro Evangelico de Medicina de Lubango (CEML): $2,142,370
  • Kalukembe Hospital: $263,450
  • Unidade Fistula Obstetrica (UFO): $2,134,079.54
  • Votoka: $64,385.00

News from the Field

Meet Florinda from Angola  •  September 30, 2016
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Florinda is from a small village in central Angola. A teenage bride, she became pregnant at 16. She went into labor at home and struggled for four days before she...
Florinda is from a small village in central Angola. A teenage bride, she became pregnant at 16. She went into labor at home and struggled for four days before she was finally brought to a hospital in Huambo, about 70 miles (over 100 km) away and the nearest place where emergency obstetric care was available. After a long drive over very bad roads, Florinda reached the hospital. Sadly, her baby did not survive.
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Meet Lia from Angola  •  August 03, 2015
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Lia arrived at CEML with great misgivings - she had sought help at many places for her fistula but was given no hope. A friend told her that she might...
Lia arrived at CEML with great misgivings - she had sought help at many places for her fistula but was given no hope. A friend told her that she might find help at CEML and urged her to go, which she eventually did. She told staff there that she sat on some rocks nearby, cried and repeated “God help me” over and over before coming through the doors.
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Huffington Post: Dying From Corruption  •  June 26, 2015
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Humankind has triumphed over diseases that used to kill millions - think plague, smallpox and polio - but we haven't seemed to slay the largest killer of them all: greed....
Humankind has triumphed over diseases that used to kill millions - think plague, smallpox and polio - but we haven't seemed to slay the largest killer of them all: greed. In a riveting piece of stellar journalism, Nick Kristof and Adam Ellick of The New York Times posted this video about Angola that will likely enrage your mind as it grips your heart. For in this oil and diamond rich country, men, women and children are dying every day from preventable and treatable problems while the political elite enrich themselves, numbed to the suffering all around them.
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