The Circuit Charity for 2010 - 2011
The Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa
(Through the British charity, Hamlim Fistula UK)
In Ethiopia, and large parts of Africa and other parts of the world where there are inadequate medical facilities, these women have a difficult, or perhaps an obstructed labour, maybe for days, leading to a stillborn child, which causes a vaginal fistula (a hole) in the bladder, rectum or in the worst cases, in both, leaving them incontinent in one or two respects. It is lifelong, and if untreated, the woman becomes an outcast in her society because of her offensive smell. This condition can only be cured by skilled surgery and the hospital .
Enormous journeys are often made by the patients, sometimes taking months to arrive at the hospital, often in a very confused and anxious state - certainly dirty, and unclean because of their condition.They are put in accommodation and given a diet that restores them to a reasonable state of health.
On discharge from hospital, each woman is given a blanket to ward off the chill of the high plateau. With this in mind many church members and others in Carlisle have been knitting blankets for onward transmission to Addis Ababa as well as raising £3485.25 flor the charity. To assist in the expensive carriage costs of sending the blankets to Ethiopia an additional £450 has been donated.
£3,485.25 has been raised by Methodist Churches in Carlisle for the charity.At the Circuit Service in September 2011, the blankets were displayed at Wigton Road Methodist Church for all to see.
