Help Restore Independence to a Women's Life
- Raised
- $430
- Goal
- $6,000
Last year, in my junior year, I took a class called Politics and Lit. In this class we read a book called Half the Sky by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas D. Kristof. This book covered many diverse and difficult topics. The book told stories of women around the world who had faced and lived through experiences no women or human ever should. One of the chapters in this book spoke about a condition that many women around the world suffer from. The condition they suffer from is known as a fistula. An obstetric fistula is an injury that occurs from an untreated obstructed birth. The medical description being, when a hole has formed between the birth canal and the rectum and/or the bladder. After reading the chapter of Half the Sky that broached this topic, we watched the documentary A Walk to Beautiful, directed by Mary Olive Smith, about the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This hospital was created by Catherine Hamlin in 1974 and carry’s on after her death in March of 2020. During the documentary about the hospital, I learned about the personal journeys of many of the women at the facility as well as about the toll that these injuries can take on a women's life. Most notably, that most women could get their life back with just one procedure, yet most won’t because they can’t afford it. That fact stuck with me. So, when it was time to pick my senior project, I felt strongly about what I wanted it to be. I hope that with the help of the community around me and all who would like to donate, we can help at least one of these women return home and restore her life and independence.
