Why We Work in Ethiopia
Today Ethiopia has the third-fastest growing economy of any country of 10 million or more people, behind India and Myanmar. Despite this promising outlook, intractable poverty continues to plague the country’s rural areas where 80% of the population resides. Ongoing ethnic conflict has displaced millions of Ethiopians. In 2018 alone, 2.9 million people were forced from their homes.
This instability has had a significant impact on Ethiopia’s women, particularly those living in rural areas, where fertility and maternal mortality rates are among the world’s highest. All the risk factors for fistula are present, including the practice of early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and a scarcity of maternal health services. Less than 30% of births are attended by a skilled medical professional.
A USAID study found that an estimated 36,000 to 39,000 women in Ethiopia live with obstetric fistula, and over 3,000 additional new cases occur each year.
What You Help Us Do
We are investing in the following areas to build Ethiopia’s in-country medical services and provide life-transforming surgery to as many women as possible:
Meet Our Partners
We are currently partnering with Aira Hospital and Village Health Partnership to deliver fistula treatment to women in Ethiopia.
Aira Hospital
Founded in the 1950s by the German Hermannsburg Mission (GHM), Aira Hospital operates today as a nonprofit institution owned and administered by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. It serves hundreds of patients daily and an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 citizens each year. Funding from Fistula Foundation has enabled the hospital to provide free fistula surgeries and free patient transportation to and from the hospital. We also support midwifery training to support safe childbirth delivery at Aira Hospital and 16 clinics throughout the countryside.
Village Health Partnership
Established in 2010, Village Health Partnership is a non-profit medical aid organization that works to provide safe motherhood for women in rural and remote areas of Ethiopia. A true partnership of American and Ethiopian women’s health specialists, VHP operates in some of the most high-needs areas of the country where civil war and unrest impact everyday life, particularly in the war-torn and isolated areas of the Wollega region.
Hamlin Fistula Hospital
From 2004 to the fall of 2016 Fistula Foundation provided over $10 million of support to Hamlin Fistula Hospital, the largest facility in the world devoted exclusively to fistula care. Our support funded the hospital’s operating costs and built a new hospital in Harar, Ethiopia. Hamlin now has their own organization in the United States dedicated to raising money for them exclusively.
Women and Health Alliance International (WAHA)
The University of Gondar, located in the historic town of Gondar in the country’s northern region, is the oldest medical training institution in Ethiopia. In 2011, the school celebrated the inauguration of a new International Fistula Training and Treatment Center. Thanks to their close relationship with our partner WAHA, Fistula Foundation was honored to provide significant funding for the center’s construction. The university will now be able to carry out substantially more fistula operations, conduct research, and provide training to medical professionals from across Africa and Asia.
Through WAHA, Fistula Foundation has also funded surgeries and training at rural satellite sites in Adama and Jimm, and at Dollo Ado, the second-largest refugee camp in the world and located in the southeastern region of the country along the Somali border.
Aira Hospital
- $12,000 in FY2019
- $17,500 in FY2012
- $17,500 in FY2011
- $15,000 in FY2010
Aira Nursing School
- $10,000 in FY2016
- $33,800 in FY2015
- $16,425 in FY2012
Hamlin Fistula Hospitals
- $830,996 in FY2016
- $708,836 in FY2013
- $700,354 in FY2012
- $617,053 in FY2011
- $1,106,627 in FY2010
- $1,082,878 in FY2009
WAHA – Gondar, Adama & Jimma University Hospitals
- $84,775 in FY2015
- $100,000 in FY2014
- $200,000 in FY2012
- $206,226 in FY2011
WAHA – Dollo Ado
- $25,000 in FY2013