On Thursday, May 18, 2017, from 6 – 8 p.m., the Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) hosts An Evening to Restore Dignity at The Cava Room of Moe’s Cantina, featuring raffle drawings, live music, food and cocktails to help end fistula and bring awareness to women needlessly suffering from treatable childbirth injuries.
Held in honor of International Day to End Fistula (May 23rd), this fundraiser with featured speaker, Dr. Rahel Nardos, brings much needed attention to women’s maternal health injuries that are both preventable and treatable. Chronic and traumatic childbirth injuries, such as obstetric fistula, affect millions of the poorest women in Africa, Asia, and other developing parts of the world. A woman with a fistula leaks urine uncontrollably due to an injury caused by prolonged, obstructed labor. Her baby usually dies. Women with childbirth injuries like fistulae often live isolated from their husbands and communities. Their lives are shattered.
The only treatment for a fistula is surgery. Women suffering devastating childbirth injuries in developing countries live in such poverty that they cannot even afford transportation costs to access medical care. WFF not only provides free surgeries, but transportation, food and hospital fee coverage during treatment and recovery. WFF also empowers women with income-generating skills to support themselves by offering literacy classes, survivor support groups and vocational skills training.
Dr. Rahel Nardos will discuss her work with WFF to treat the epidemic, specifically in Ethiopia. “Having grown up in Ethiopia, I have witnessed the healthcare conditions some of these women endure as well as the current shortage of trained medical personnel to provide necessary care to address childbirth injuries,” says Dr. Nardos. “I feel privileged working with Worldwide Fistula Fund toward expanding medical capacity.” At the event, Dr. Nardos will discuss her work through Mekelle University to advance WFF’s collaborative doctor training curriculum including Ethiopia’s first Urogynecology Fellowship program.
In addition to Board Member Dr. Rahel Nardos, speakers will include WFF Executive Director, Soja Orlowski, who will discuss exciting new program developments in Uganda. “I am thrilled to share progress on plans to build a new fistula hospital in Uganda, with a coalition of partners, to triple capacity to treat and teach vocational skills to women suffering from fistula in Uganda,” says Soja Orlowski. WFF has partnered with TERREWODE in Uganda for the past seven years and a selection of jewelry and crafts handmade by Ugandan fistula survivors will be for sale at An Evening to Restore Dignity –with all proceeds benefiting survivors and the programs that support them.
The Cava Room at Moe’s Cantina is located at 155 West Kinzie Street in Chicago. Priced at $35, tickets include beer and signature sangria and margaritas, gourmet small bites and an authentic taco bar. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, please contact Casey Shipman at [email protected] or 847-264-5946 or visit http://ow.ly/s07J309Y- pfX.
Twitter: @fistulafund;
Facebook: @WorldwideFistulaFund; #wffund; #internationaldaytoendfistula.
About Worldwide
Fistula Fund
“We protect and restore the health and dignity of the world’s poorest women by preventing and treating devastating childbirth injuries.”
