This morning, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times highlighted the work of Dr. Steve Arrowsmith, Dr. Lewis Wall and the Worldwide Fistula Fund and celebrated the opening of the Danja Fistula Center. We encourage you to share in the success that you helped to create, and to enjoy Mother's Day while honoring women living with an obstetric fistula. Following are the opening paragraphs of this incredible article:

 

This is a Mother's Day tribute to a mighty woman and to the doctor who gave her back her life - and also a celebration of a grand new women's hospital that you as readers helped to build.

 

The woman is Mahabouba Mohammed, an Ethiopian who was raped at about age 13. She gave birth alone: after many days of labor, the baby was stillborn and she suffered an obstetric fistula.

 

A fistula is just about the worst fate that can happen to a woman or girl. It's a childbirth injury that causes her to leak urine or feces continuously through her vagina. In Mahabouba's case, she also suffered nerve damage in both legs so that she couldn't walk.

 

More than two million women and girls have fistulas worldwide. They are the lepers of the 21st century, among the most voiceless and shunned people on earth. Fistulas were once also common in America (a fistula hospital was once located in Manhattan where the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is now), but today they normally afflict only people in poor countries of Africa and Asia.

 

To continue reading the article, please click here: Saving the Lives of Moms.

Please click here to continue your support of the Worldwide Fistula Fund and women impacted by obstetric fistula.

Happy Mother's Day!

The Worldwide Fistula Fund

Dr. Steve Arrowsmith and Doctor Steve