Director’s Notes
We Are Still Providing Vital Services to Women.
May 5, 2020
Dear Friends,
We Are Still Providing Vital Services To Women.
Through this pandemic, our work has continued. With the help of our remarkable grantees, WFF services have been adapted to ensure the safety of local staff and the women we serve.
Although how we deliver services has changed, our mission remains the same: to protect and restore the health and dignity of the world’s most vulnerable women by preventing and treating devastating childbirth injuries.
What do current services look like?
Phone consultations to:
- refer pregnant women to our partner hospitals
- counsel domestic violence victims
- follow up with discharged fistula patients
- support solidarity groups on how to maintain their businesses
In Uganda, Terrewode’s toll free hotline that WFF began funding over a year ago is more important than ever. It has been flooded by calls from women suffering domestic violence and pregnant women unsure where to go. Our advocates are able to work remotely to counsel these women as well as maintain a wait list for when we resume surgeries and group reintegration.
Uganda’s Terrewode is using their ambulance and outreach van to transport pregnant women from remote areas to hospitals to prevent childbirth injuries.
In Kenya, the mobile phones provided by WFF allow Sarah and the leadership team to continue advising Solidarity groups. While group activities are suspended, their savings have allowed the groups to make micro-loans to members that need extra support during the pandemic.
Utilizing online medical training for our Ethiopian fellows, they now have the ability to learn remotely with our US team of experts. . Board members Dr. Nardos and Dr. Richter have secured from the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS), complementary international memberships for our fellows to access online learning resources. Our Urogynecology Fellowship graduates, Dr. Melaku and Dr. Fekade, are serving as local leaders and resources to our fellows during this pandemic. The fellows are continuing to develop their research proposals (requirements for graduation) supported by their local and US mentors.
With your support, WFF partners can continue empowering women and preventing childbirth injuries while practicing physical distancing.
Sincerely,
Soja Orlowski
Executive Director