Elizabeth Kucinich: Sustainable Wealth

Elizabeth Kucinich talks about the women's issues that she has seen around the world. She explains the WORTH program which is being used with women in Uganda and how she can implement some of the same techniques in America. She also describes the importance of community economics and ways to build wealth amongst women within a community.

Get small groups of 20 - 25 women taught, numeracy, literacy skills. The Worth Model was developed in Nepal, community banking. They save money every week. Micro savings. After 6 months they lend to each other and it stays in the community. Build savings pool, interest paid back to the pool, end of year dividend. Build social enterprises.

Raise the status of women - bring them out from under the domination of men.

The most devastating of all childbirth injuries

An obstetric fistula develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and the bladder (and/or rectum) is cut off during prolonged obstructed labor. The tissues die and a hole forms through which urine and/or feces pass uncontrollably. Women who develop fistulas are often abandoned by their husbands, rejected by their communities, and forced to live an isolated existence.
More than two million women live with fistula

Eradicated in western countries at the end of the 19th century when cesarean section became widely available, obstetric fistula continues to plague women throughout the developing world. It is estimated that there are 100,000 new fistula cases each year, but the international capacity to treat fistula remains at only 6,500 per year. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates the world's population of fistula sufferers at more than two million.
Nerve damage and psychological trauma

The WHO has called fistula “the single most dramatic aftermath of neglected childbirth”. In addition to complete incontinence, a fistula victim may develop nerve damage to the lower extremities after a multi-day labor in a squatting position. Fistula victims also suffer profound psychological trauma resulting from their utter loss of status and dignity.

Fistula Foundation

An oasis of healing

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital was founded in 1974 by Australian obstetrician-gynecologist, Drs. Catherine Hamlin, and her New Zealand born ob-gyn husband, Reginald.
The Hospital has restored the lives and hopes of more than 32,000 women who would have otherwise perished or suffered lifelong complications brought on by childbirth injuries, specifically obstetric fistula. Today, the hospital provides free fistula repair surgery to approximately 1,200 women every year and cares for 35 long-term patients. Located in Ethiopia, it is considered the preeminent hospital dedicated exclusively to victims of obstetric fistula. They have developed the model program for fistula treatment worldwide, and have inspired numerous centers throughout the developing world. It is the world center for fistula treatment, long-term care, prevention, and training.
Training doctors from all over the world

Today, all medical students specializing in obstetrics and gynecology in Ethiopia are required to train for two months at Fistula Hospital. So far, more than 100 surgeons from throughout the developing world have received fistula repair surgery training, and the global health community has come to recognize the importance of treating the world's fistula victims.
Long-term care for chronic patients

In recent years the number of long-term patients slowly rose to the point where there was neither enough work for them at the hospital, or enough room to shelter them.  In 2000, the hospital requested and eventually received a grant of approximately 60 acres of land located eight miles from the hospital. There they built Desta Mender (meaning "Village of Joy" in Amharic), a village of ten cottages and two common buildings to house long-term care patients.
Dramatic expansion to help cure many more women and prevent more fistulas
Hamlin Fistula Hospitals has initiated an expansion project to build five mini-fistula hospitals throughout Ethiopia. Three of the mini-hospitals are open in Bahir Dar, Mekele, and Yirgalem; each is expected to treat approximately 400 patients per year.

History

Ethiopia's Rift Valley is known as the cradle of humanity – fossils of the oldest known upright hominid, the 3.5-million-year-old 'Lucy', were found there in 1974. Records of Ethiopian rulers date back 5000 years, and the Queen of Sheba's son, Menelik I, is regarded as the first emperor. Menelik's dynasty continued into the early twentieth century when Haile Selassie took over rule. Selassie held power from 1930 until 1974 when he was deposed by the Dergue, a military junta which terrorized the country for almost two decades.

Culture

Located in East Africa, Ethiopia is divided into 13 self-governing regions, each with their own languages, cultures and traditions. While Amharic is Ethiopia's official language, there are nearly 80 local languages in Ethiopia, many of which are spoken languages only.

Religion

According to local tradition, ancient Ethiopians were Jewish. Ethiopian Orthodoxy arrived as early as 330 A.D. and until the Marxist revolution, there were Orthodox clergy in almost every town in the country. Today, Muslims account for 45% of the population, Ethiopian Orthodox for 35%, and other religions including animism account for the remaining 20% of the population.

Cuisine

Injera is the mainstay of the Ethiopian diet. This bouncy bread, made from Ethiopian grain called tef, is commonly eaten with wat, a meat and vegetable sauce. The southern region of Kafa claims to be the original home of coffee, and the bean has been grown in Ethiopia since 1000 A.D.

Economics

Despite the diversity of the peoples, the dynamic culture and history, and the dramatic landscape, the vast majority of the Ethiopian population is impoverished. Most eke out a subsistence living and have virtually no access to healthcare.

The Doctors Hamlin

In the late 1950s, two young doctors, Reginald and Catherine Hamlin, were dedicated obstetricians living and working in Catherine's native Australia. Early in their careers, the couple practiced gynecology in Sydney, but they were eager to seek out and aid the women who needed them most.

They got their chance in 1959, when they were called upon to come to Ethiopia and set up practice in a hospital in the capital city of Addis Ababa. When they arrived, Reginald and Catherine discovered a very poor country with almost no resources for expectant mothers. The Hamlins planned to open a midwifery school at the Princess Tshai Memorial Hospital and to stay for three years.

Pioneering fistula treatment

On the evening of their arrival, the Hamlins were doing their best to settle into their new home, when a fellow gynecologist came to visit. That doctor described obstetric fistula to the Hamlins, neither of whom had ever seen an obstetric fistula before. "To us they were an academic rarity," Catherine recalls in her book, The Hospital by the River.

Before the Hamlins came to Addis Ababa, there was no treatment available for fistula victims anywhere in the world. Most such injured women – and there were thousands – had suffered in silence for years.

Reginald and Catherine quickly began to learn everything they could about obstetric fistula, a condition that had all but disappeared in the United States in 1895, when the first fistula hospital closed its doors in New York. The Hamlins perfected a surgical technique to mend the injuries, while continuing to treat a broad range of obstetric cases. In their first year in Ethiopia, the Hamlins treated 30 fistula patients.

The founding of a hospital

Through first hand experience, the Hamlins quickly became aware of the suffering endured by women with fistulas. Fistula victims are usually shunned so severely due to their odor that even other patients refuse to be near them. Reginald and Catherine knew the fistula women deserved a hospital of their own. The Hamlins worked for more than a decade to establish a fistula hospital, even through a military coup when most foreigners fled Ethiopia. Finally, in 1974, the Hamlins opened the doors of Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. It remains the only medical center in the world dedicated exclusively to fistula repair.

"Saint Catherine"

Reginald Hamlin worked diligently at Fistula Hospital until his death in 1993. Catherine Hamlin, now 84 years old, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and the list of her humanitarian awards is impressive. She continues to oversee the work of the hospital and can frequently be found in the operating room performing the delicate fistula repair surgery she pioneered more than 40 years ago.