Dr. Ambaye and her team have an incredible challenge ahead of them. You may not know this but Ethiopia still has one of the highest rates of fistula in the world. While most other countries have eliminated the condition completely, about 3,000 Ethiopian women will develop it each year. There are also an estimated 36,000 women living in hiding with untreated fistula.

Did you know it costs Dr. Ambaye $902.00 each month to run radio awareness campaigns so we can reach these women in hiding? Then, to identify a woman and transport her to hospital for surgery, it costs $108.74. And, at the hospital, it costs $659.57 to perform the life-saving surgery including post-operative physiotherapy, counselling and nutritious food plus a new dress or shawl to wear home.

It was Dr Ambaye who helped Meseret. She remembers seeing the devastated young woman for the first time:

“When a patient like Meseret enters an examination room, it is not difficult to diagnose when she suffers from obstetric fistula,” Dr Ambaye says. “Their small build, the clothes soaked with urine, the smell that comes into the room, their shyness to be examined, the sadness on their face. I could see how much Meseret was suffering.”

Due to the complex nature of the fistula, it took more than four hours for Dr Ambaye to operate and 18 days for Meseret to recover. But when her bladder catheter was removed and Meseret was finally able to control her urine, everyone was ecstatic.

“She was so happy to have her dignity returned,” Dr Ambaye says. “We all shared Meseret’s happiness.”

Meseret has since gone on to become a Safe Motherhood Ambassador with our other partner, Healing Hands of Joy. She will now dedicate her time to helping other women learn about fistula prevention and encouraging other women living with the condition to come forward and be treated.

Hope of Light is funded entirely through donations and with three hospitals to run, in the middle of a global pandemic that is still very present in Ethiopia, times are incredibly tough.