Love and Kindness to Ethiopian Women

Here I am, home from Hawaii and knitting!! You see, I had this organised before I left and I am delighted to be involved with a group of women who are assisting women at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.  We are knitting blankets that will be given to women when they arrive at the hospital seeking help.  Women from all over Ethiopia make their way to these hospitals because they have suffered damage to their pelvic organs as a result of prolonged labour.  Their long labours, sometimes lasting for over five days can result in stillbirth and a fistula from the bladder or bowel through to their vagina.  This leaves the women incontinent, smelly and cast out from their family and society.

Dr Catherine Hamlin AC and her husband built and opened this Hospital in 1975 and Catherine continues her work to this day, recently opening a self help rural village for those women who cannot be completely cured. They now have a place to call home and real opportunities to earn and income.  I am truly grateful that there are people like Catherine and her husband doing these things to help.

That is how I come to be knitting with a group of women, to create some of the lovely blankets that each woman receives when she arrives. You can help too.  First, look at the website and get an idea about what is being done and how you can help.  And then do some knitting yourself, organise a group of like minded people and just get on with it.  Wrap a blanket, knitted with love and kindness around the shoulders of a young Ethiopian girl so that she knows that someone cares.