Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vested an honorary citizenship of Ethiopia on Founder and Owner of the Fistula Hospital, Dr Catherine Hamlin in recognition of her outstanding humanitarian services she provided to fistula patients.
Prime Minister Meles vested the honorary citizenship at a ceremony held here on Thursday at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Meles said Dr. Hamlin was awarded the citizenship for serving the fistula patients for more than five decades by establishing a fistula hospital in the country.Meles gave Ethiopian passport and certificate of honorary citizenship during the ceremony.
He said Dr. Hamlin has been able to rescue thousands of fistula patients which is very much commendable.
Speaking on his part, Health Minister Dr. Tewdrso Adhanom said Dr. Hamlin has served Ethiopians for more than 53 years which he said shows her love to Ethiopia.
Speaking on her part, Dr. Hamlin said "Although I was not born in Ethiopia, I love the country very much."
She said she was very happy to be given the honorary citizenship in recognition of her humanitarian services.
Dr Catherine Hamlin, née Nicholson, was born in Sydney Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1946. She met and married Dr Reginald Hamlin, a New Zealander, when they were both Senior Medical Administrators at Crown Street Women's Hospital, Sydney.
In 1958 they answered an advertisement in the Lancet Medical Journal for an obstetrician and gynaecologist to establish a Midwifery School at the Princess Tsehay Hospital in Addis Ababa. They arrived in Addis Ababa in 1959 on a three year contract with the Ethiopian Government.
They began working in the hospital and training midwives. However, after a short while the Ethiopian Government advised the Hamlins that it would not be able to afford to pay the higher salaries of the trained midwives. Only about 10 midwives had been trained before the the Government closed the midwifery school.
Finally, in 1974 during the Communist Revolution which overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie, the Hamlins opened the doors of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. It remains the only hospital in the world dedicated exclusively to fistula repair.
More than 35,000 women suffering from obstetric fistula were treated and cured so far.
The Hamlin College of Midwives took its first batch of students at the end of 2007.
Meanwhile, the commercial Bank of Ethiopia donated 500,000 Birr for the Hamline Fistula Hospital here on Thursday on the occasion organized to celebrate the citizenship presentation at Desta Mender, a village farm built by the Hospital.
Desta Mender is a village where women who have suffered injuries which require long term medical care can live and learn life skills such as literacy, numeracy, agriculture, horticulture and dairying was opened in 2003.
Sourced from the Ethiopian News Agency.
About the Hamlin Fistula® Relief and Aid Fund
Hamlin Fistula® Australia Limited is the authorised Australian representative of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. It administers the Hamlin Fistula® Relief and Aid Fund which is a registered Australian charity with tax deductible status. The Hamlin Fistula® Relief and Aid Fund is the only charity in Australia solely dedicated to supporting the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.
The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital was founded by Dr Catherine Hamlin AC and her late husband, Dr Reg Hamlin OBE, and is dedicated to the treatment and care of women who suffer horrendous childbirth injuries, known as obstetric fistula.
Obstetric fistula is caused by prolonged obstructed labour when a woman will spend days in labour without any medical help or pain relief. If she survives this ordeal she will give birth to a still born child and her internal injuries will cause her to be incontinent of urine and sometimes bowel contents as well.
She will spend the rest of her life a destitute outcast unless she can get to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital or one of its outreach centres.
The surgical technique developed by the Hamlins successfully cures 93% of obstetric fistula cases. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital has established a purpose–built village called Desta Mender ("Village of Joy") to provide long term care for women whose childbirth injuries are so severe that they cannot return to live a normal Ethiopian village life. At Desta Mender the women are trained in new skills so that eventually they can re–enter Ethiopian society as "citizens of the world" once again.
The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital is committed to the UN Millennium Development Goals and particularly those directed towards improving maternal health, reducing infant mortality and empowering women. It has established the Hamlin College of Midwives to train young Ethiopian women as midwives to work in the Ethiopian countryside amongst women who presently have little or no access to medical help during their pregnancy and labour. The mission of the Hamlin College of Midwives is to have a midwife in every Ethiopian village.
The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital relies entirely on donations from overseas to fund its vital work of improving maternal health, reducing infant mortality and empowering women. Australian tax deductible donations can be made through this website to the Hamlin Fistula Relief® and Aid Fund.
For further details on the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Dr Catherine Hamlin, the country of Ethiopia, fistula surgery, childbirth and maternal health in Ethiopia and the Hamlin College of Midwives, please use the main navigation system above.
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