What charity do you support?

After a huge outpouring of concern and interest a couple of months ago on a beautiful comment made by Mamamia reader Eliza on the plight of fistula sufferers, I asked Mel Wallace to prepare some information for us so that we could learn more about what fistula is and how we can help!

Mel writes

Scenario: you’ve just spent five days going through the labour from hell, unassisted and the baby you deliver is still born. The prolonged restriction of blood to your vagina has caused the tissue in the area to die and disintegrate, creating a hole- called a fistula- in which urine, and possibly even faeces, passes uncontrollably. Nine months of pregnancy and five days of traumatic labour and all you’re left with is the stigma of a condition that hardly anyone knows about ? (It is a fact that in most cases of obstetric fistula the baby is stillborn)

Tragically, this is what many poor women and girls as young as 14 are suffering with in third world countries; countries where it is common for young girls to be married off and become pregnant before they’ve even finished going through puberty.  Imagine your daughter, your sister or your best friend in this situation and imagine what kind of a life she’d be fated to live.

These women are shunned from society because of the constant leakage of urine and faeces and the odour that follows. Their husbands, family and friends desert them, and they’re left to live an isolated existence.

But one woman, Dr Catherine Hamlin, is working hard to eradicate a problem that has not existed in the developed world since we’ve developed obstetric techniques like caesareans. In 1974 Catherine, with her (now late) husband Reginald, opened the doors to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, which still remains the only hospital worldwide solely dedicated to fistula repair.

Catherine has dedicated her life to training midwives so they can be present during labour and help prevent women developing obstetric fistulae. Catherine has also developed a surgical technique that can repair obstetric fistulae in 93% of cases. This means that 93% of the poor women that come to her are able to continue living normal lives, rather than being locked up in rooms, as would have otherwise been their fate.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, a year 8 student from Melbourne, Eliza Dunn, and a bunch of classmates have been busying themselves fundraising for Catherine and the Fistula Hospital. They were shown a heartbreaking video that Eliza says deeply moved and inspired them to help, “Especially as the girls are around our age.”

“After seeing the documentary I felt I had to do something,” Eliza said. And so she has. So far her and friends have donated goods and a substantial sum of money, as well as approached various media asking for help in raising awareness of Fistula.

Currently, Eliza is in the process of contacting companies and organisations around Australia asking for help in any form, from the donation of goods such as lipsticks, nail polishes and pyjamas (a much loved novelty for girls from third world countries), to monetary donations, or simply raising awareness.

You can help restore the dignity of women suffering from obstetric fistula by donating money to the Fistula Foundation . Or do what Eliza has done and become a volunteer fundraiser and join the Fistula Foundation’s Circle Of Friends program, which helps people to organise fundraising events or to raise awareness of the condition.

Eliza posted a comment on Mamamia, and through one girl’s actions a whole bunch of people in an online community were educated and inspired. It’s so easy to hear of or see terrible stories in the media and feel unable to help  – but there is always a way  and you don’t have to be rich, powerful or famous.  You just have to demonstrate that you care.

What charities or foundations do you support? And what made you choose that particular one?  I am sure that we can all learn different ways that we can support those who need our help, even if we don’t have money to donate….