Why am I doing this? Why did I choose to leave a promising private sector career path and devote a significant portion of my savings to a venture totally focused on an obscure women’s health issue? Those of you who have witnessed and even supported my transition into social enterprise understand what is driving me generally. But most people could not (and maybe still don’t) comprehend my specific motivations for founding OperationOF.

The fistula problem moved me immediately. I don’t think you have to be a woman to appreciate the absolute devastation caused by constant incontinence, but when I say “the fistula problem,” I don’t actually mean the affliction that condemns these women to a life of ostracism. To me, “the fistula problem” describes a major system failure and the most blatant and compelling symptom of this failure is OF.

As someone who has spent his career optimizing process to improve efficiency, I was first captured by the challenge of more effectively treating women living with OF. The numbers themselves are a call to action:

• at least 2 million women living with a devastating, but correctable condition
• at least 100,000 new cases every year
• existing worldwide capacity can only treat 10,000 women per annum.

But even the most transformative treatment mechanisms only bear fruit when you slow the flow of new cases. So the old adage still holds true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It was this truth that led me to the broader failure of emergency obstetric care in the developing world.

It turns out that pregnancy means something different in the developing world than it does in the West. We have support mechanisms and layers of care up to, during, and after childbirth that ensure the vast majority of women can safely deliver their babies. But in parts of the developing world, limited resources and lacking infrastructure mean that pregnancy is a very solitary and dangerous venture, especially for women in remote rural villages.

We kept all this in mind when developing the Vision, Mission and Core Values for OperationOF. We consider this strategic framework fundamental to our success as an organization. How will we know success if we don’t define the objective? How will we achieve this aim and which principles will guide us? We wanted to describe inspiring and meaningful answers to these important questions, not to produce some drab statement full of buzzwords and corporate speak.

With the Vision, we describe what the world will look like when we ultimately fulfill our purpose. We hoped to paint a picture of the future that was both sensory and concrete. We felt a simple and clear statement, followed by a brief commentary provided an ambitious and inspiring picture of how we want to change the world.

Vision

A world where pregnancy never means death or disability.

Over 500,000 women die every year during childbirth and 20 times as many experience debilitating morbidities. That means that over 10 million women a year face life-altering or -ending adversity while attempting to become mothers. While we are focused on the very specific morbidity of obstetric fistula, we measure ultimate success by how much safer we can make motherhood for every woman, everywhere.

Our original vision focused only on eradicating OF, a formidable objective on its own. But research and conversations showed us that that the only way to end OF specifically was to make motherhood safer more generally. With our Mission, we explain not only how we plan to realize our vision, but also why we felt it critical to pursue such an aim.

Mission

Expanding global capacity to prevent and treat obstetric fistula.

The loss of dignity caused by obstetric fistula is a human rights calamity that affects us all. Our mission is to use operational services and investment-based fundraising methodologies to help further the impact and effectiveness of organizations focused on

• Prevention – making motherhood safer by providing access to emergency obstetric care;
• Treatment – providing interventions that help women recover their dignity through
  • Surgical Repair - performing outreach services, providing surgical correction of obstetric fistula as well as pre- and post- operative care; and
  • Psychosocial Reintegration – ensuring social, psychological, psychosocial and economic reintegration services to fistula survivors.

Besides helping to recovering lost dignity, our treatment intervention provides an opportunity to empower women. We believe that pursuing this objective is in line with our mission and will eventually lead to prevention of obstetric fistula and safer motherhood.

Finally, our Core Values define how we conduct ourselves as an organization. These are the essential and enduring tenants that will help our organization set boundaries and drive action throughout our existence. And we shouldn’t exist indefinitely – achieving our vision should eliminate the need for OperationOF altogether.

Core Values

Dignity. Dignity is the source of all human rights. All human beings possess intrinsic worthiness and deserve unconditional respect. Any discrete indignity, regardless how small, is a direct threat to the collective dignity we all enjoy. Responsibility to recover lost dignity does not fall only on the affected individual, but also on each of us as member of the human family.

Empowerment. Capability is distributed equally across the human family. The accident of geography should never prevent or prohibit an individual from realizing their full potential. Removing barriers that prevent able people from helping themselves and others is the most efficient intervention.

Collaboration. Profound human achievement is always a collective effort. The cooperation of many diverse actors has and will continue to enable the greatest human progress. There is no personal, cultural, ideological, or philosophical difference that a deeply held common purpose will fail to transcend. Together everyone achieves more.

Sustainability. Lasting change results from resource magnification, not consumption. Profit takes many forms and every investment yields returns across this ever-broadening spectrum. Intelligent deployment of capital combined with a tireless effort to identify and capture all resultant value ensures ongoing impact.