---
title: "The week's roundup: fistula in the news"
description: "The week's roundup: fistula in the news"
---

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# The week's roundup: fistula in the news

Posted by [Glendora](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/author/glendora) on Mar 25, 2014 11:58:38 AM

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Mentions of fistula in the media tend to be [few and far between](http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jul/05/poverty-porn-development-reporting-fistula).

So we're psyched this week to point you towards a couple of relevant links that tell two different stories about fistula.

First, Samuel M. Gebru, founder of the Ethiopian Global Initiative, posted a [vlog](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bugjSvnse08) about the great Catherine Hamlin and her 40-year (so far!) effort to end fistula in Ethiopia. As we had [noted earlier](http://www.opfistula.org/2014/02/21/happy-90th-birthday-dr-hamlin/), Dr. Hamlin recently celebrated her 90th birthday, and it's been a wonderful reason for the fistula community to come together and look back on decades of work combating childbirth injuries affecting women in developing countries. Gebru talks about his first encounter with Dr. Hamlin's work, and how it inspired him -- as an 8th grader! -- to band together with other youngsters to raise the funds that eventually treated 11 women suffering from fistula.

Not only is this totally kick-ass, but it's a perfect example of something [we've argued](http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/05/Reframing-the-Fistula-Narrative-A-Call-to-Action) time and again: men care about maternal health! Let's not leave them out of such an important conversation.

Then just yesterday, [Anders Kelto](https://twitter.com/anderskelto), Africa Correspondent at PRI's The World, did a [piece on fistula](http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-03-24/scarred-childbirth-mothers-are-finding-help-heal-and-start-over) in Malawi. Because our biggest project is based in Malawi, this report was especially welcome. Kelto interviewed our friend and collaborator Dr. Jeff Wilkinson of Bwaila District Hospital in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. Wilkinson and his team at Bwaila are truly a driving force in eliminating fistula in Malawi, and a great resource for many of the local surgeons our program supports. Numerous times over the past year, Wilkinson invited [Joseph Chilewani](http://www.opfistula.org/joseph-chilewani/), a fistula surgeon struggling to find a place to operate while his own hospital is under construction, to use the operating theatre at Bwaila.

The fistula community is a small one, so it's very satisfying to connect with people associated with our cause in one way or another, to slowly establish a bigger collective voice. Help us stay on the lookout for new mentions of fistula in the news!

 Topics: [Africa](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/africa), [Ethiopia](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/ethiopia), [obstetric fistula](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/obstetric-fistula-2), [fistula](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/fistula-2), [Malawi](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/malawi), [media](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/media), [News](https://info.opfistula.org/blog/topic/news)

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