Fistula Foundation
 | |
| Founded | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Focus | Humanitarian |
| Location | |
Area served | Africa and Asia |
| Method | Aid |
| Slogan | Help Give A Woman A New Life |
| Website | www.fistulafoundation.org |
Fistula Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness of and funding for obstetric fistula treatment worldwide. The foundation funds more fistula repair surgeries than any other nonprofit not taking government funding.
It is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization which was founded in 2000. It is headquartered in San Jose, California. Since its inception it has raised more than $20 million from donors throughout the United States. Until 2008, the Foundation supported only the work of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, founded by Dr. Catherine Hamlin and her late husband Reginald Hamlin. Since 2009, the Foundation has extended its reach to grantee partners in 29 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.[1]
The primary focus of Fistula Foundation is treatment, either directly through fistula repair surgeries, or indirectly through training of surgeons and the provision and equipping of medical facilities. Countries where the Foundation has supported projects include Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Foundation is a partner of the United Nations Population Fund’s Campaign to End Fistula. Other partners include Women and Health Alliance (WAHA), Direct Relief, the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and the International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons (ISOFS).
The Foundation has a seven-member Board of Directors; the chair is Dr. Sohier Elneil and the chief executive officer is Kate Grant. Fistula Foundation meets all Better Business Bureau Standards of Charity Accountability and has received the top 4-Star Rating from Charity Navigator for the last nine years placing it in the top 1% of charities nationwide.[2]
The Foundation was a primary sponsor of the documentary film A Walk to Beautiful which won the Best Feature-Length Documentary of 2007 from the International Documentary Association[3] as well as an Emmy for best long form documentary in 2008. The film tells the story of five Ethiopian women treated by Dr. Hamlin and her staff at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. PBS's NOVA is the other major sponsor of the documentary.[4]
More recently, the Foundation has been mentioned several times by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times and is a featured NGO partner of the Half the Sky Movement, a movement surrounding the PBS documentary film release of the book that Kristof authored with wife Sheryl WuDunn: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.[5] This campaign includes the popular Facebook-based game, Half the Game. Thanks to generous support from Johnson & Johnson, players of this game can help fund fistula treatment in the real world, through online actions in the game.
Fistula Foundation has received funding and supplies from Johnson & Johnson. The company has partnered with Fistula Foundation for the last decade, providing more than $1 million in support.
Fistula Foundation also works in Kenya to run the Action on Fistula program, a three year initiative designed to treat women, train more fistula surgeons and build a lasting national network of treatment partners, funded by Astellas Pharma EMEA.[6]
References
External links
- official Fistula Foundation website
- The Global Library of Women's Medicine: Safer Motherhood Section - Non-profit offering freely downloadable material, including Fistula surgery, for healthcare professionals.