In the midst of Hurricane Sandy activity last week, it was nice to see the Global Fistula Map—published by Direct Relief, the Fistula Foundation, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)—cited in the U.N. Secretary-General Report, “Supporting Efforts to End Obstetric Fistula,” presented by UNFPA Deputy Executive Director, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, at the United Nations. As the report notes, obstetric fistula
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Many women with obstetric fistula suffer for years or decades before they are able to access surgical treatment. Fortunately for Beatrice, who was 16 when she developed fistula, it was less than a month before she received treatment at the Nyanza Provincial General Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya – where Direct Relief has worked since 2009, with the support of The
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Many positive changes have been made since last October when Direct Relief provided a $25,000 grant to Women and Health Alliance International (WAHA), an international nonprofit organization committed to improving maternal and neonatal health in disadvantaged communities throughout Africa. This grant was provided to WAHA at the height of the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa to support their work in Dadaab,
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When Avi Kenny graduated from Brown University in 2011 he did what most recent Ivy League grads do—he headed straight for rural Africa. Part of a new, adventurous and innovative generation of global health leadership, Avi heads up the monitoring and evaluation efforts for Tiyatien Health (TH), a start-up non-governmental organization (NGO) health project in the remote district of Konobo,
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Down a bumpy dirt track nearly three hours south of Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, Edna Adan and I crawl our way to the town of Baligubadle, just steps from the Ethiopian border. At the Maternal and Child Health Center in this small town, which serves approximately 25,000 in Somaliland plus those from neighboring Ethiopia, we meet Sado, a
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Somaliland is a difficult place to be a woman. Childbirth in particular brings with it serious risks. Lack of access to trained health professionals; low uptake of antenatal care; high rates of malnutrition; and prevalence of female genital cutting all increase the chances that complications may occur. While rates of maternal mortality are still some of the highest in the
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