Please forgive me for writing to you today, my name is Mamitu Gashie and I am a surgeon at Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. I want to show you how a simple operation and a homemade dress gives new hope to a woman who has a terrible condition called fistula.

In my country most women give birth at home without a doctor or midwife so when something goes wrong there is no one to help. Tragically the women we treat lose their babies after enduring a labour that has lasted for days on end.

These grieving, exhausted mothers are left with a hole in their bladder called a fistula which leaves them incontinent, unable to walk and in pain.

Yet there is a cure - a simple procedure taking only 60 minutes. It's an hour that can totally transform a woman's life.

It can also give a woman the chance to have a child again in the future. The full cost of this life-changing surgery is £100.

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital has few resources yet we manage to carry out 2,500 operations every year. We can only afford to continue thanks to the kindness of people who help our life-changing work. Ethiopiaid has supported us for many years and is committed to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital for the long-term.

I hope my story moves you to donate to Ethiopiaid today because there are thousands more women needlessly suffering with fistula. Your gift will help to give another woman who has endured great suffering a truly life-changing operation and the new beginning they deserve.

Thank you so very much.

Yours sincerely,

Mamitu Geshie,
Fistula Surgeon

When the Hospital is still too far...