- Conference
- 2009 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 21 October 2008
- Decision
- Carried
In Ethiopia seventy five per cernt of the population live, on average, two and half days walk from an all-weather road. There are few maternity medical services and as a result approx nine thousand women each year will develop an obstetric fistula (a hole in the birth canal). Fistulas can be caused by rape but more often result from an obstructed labour. The mother, if she is fortunate to survive, will deliver a stillborn baby, and the prolonged labour will have worn a hole in the birth canal leaving the woman facing urinary or faecal incontinence, or both. Five per cent of all women in Ethiopia suffer from this horrendous condition which, left untreated, can lead to chronic medical problems including ulcerations, kidney disease and nerve damage in the legs. The smell of leaking urine or faeces or both is constant and humiliating, and the woman is often ostracised from her loved ones and isolated from the community.
The Addis Ababa Fistula hospital in Ethiopia was set up in 1975 and now has four outreach centres with plans for a midwifery school and education in the form of prevention programmes. No patient is turned away and all the treatment is free.
The Addis Ababa Fistula hospital is supported exclusively in the UK by The Hamlin Fistula UK charity (Reg. UK Charity No. 257741).
This Conference instructs the National Women’s Committee to:
1)Work with UNISON’s International Committee and UNISON’S National Health Committee to identify what help, support and resources are needed to enable this very worthy cause to continue and expand its vital work.
2)Invite a woman speaker from this charity to speak at the 2010 UNISON Women’s conference.
3)Report back to the National Women’s Conference in 2010 on progress.