Restoring dignity 2007
Support for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia → funded a new café and a hard-top vehicle, providing employment for those girls resident at the village, unable to return home because they are among the small percentage whose fistulae cannot be completely cured.
In partnership with the Hamlin Trust
The Juniper Café at Desta Mender Village was funded by Soroptimist President's Appeal donations. Desta Mender (“Village of Joy” in Amharic) is an idyllic farm village set on 60 acres (21 hectares) only 17 kms from Addis Ababa. Seated at the foot of a mountain with over 300 fruit trees (apples and peaches) it currently houses 50 women with chronic long-term injuries. It also accommodates pre-operative patients for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The Café was opened by Dr Catherine Hamlin who wrote:
"Our new Juniper Café….is near our teaching or conference centre where we hope to attract groups, who want a pleasant place to hold a day conference, and where they can buy food from our café. We are enormously grateful to the Soroptimist International organisation for raising all the money for this café through the 2007 and 2008 President’s Day Appeals, called "Restoring Dignity". We want to thank the President of the Soroptimists for those 2 years, Margaret Lobo, for choosing the Hospital to be the recipient of this large donation – which also paid for a hard-top vehicle for use at Desta Mender." (Hamlin Trust Newsletter March 2009)
Watch this amazing new film, the first in a series of three, about the fistula hospital in Addis Ababa (by AlJazeera).
Stuart Abraham, the previous Executive Officer of the Hamlin Trust in Australia, wrote that the Juniper Café was a marvellous addition to the Village, not only providing a need at the Desta Mender Village, but also a training ground for the girls. He anticipated that many, after a period of being employed at the Café, and trained in other ways, would be able to move on to some kind of independent employment or start their own small business. The objective of the Hospital is to help the women to become independent.
Story from Ethiopia
"This young woman's story is that she was found in a dark hut in the Metu region (far west) of Ethiopia. She had lain on a goat skin bed for many years suffering from an obstetric fistula. She had bed sores down to the bone. One of the Fistula Hospital doctors who was on a field trip found her and arranged for her to be transported to the Hospital. The young woman had lain still for so long hoping that she would stop leaking that she lost the use of her legs and could not walk. She was also so psychologically depressed that she did not speak. After months of rehabilitation and physiotherapy at Desta Mender she began to 'come alive again'. She began to talk and socialise. So far the doctors have only been able to partially repair her very severe injuries and she will most likely always require medical help and support. However she now walks and has learnt to read and write. She is now the 'official' record keeper for the dairy. She records the milk production from each cow every day." James Grainger, Executive Officer, Hamlin Fistula® Relief and Aid Fund.
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