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In the News

June 16, 2021

WFF Board Member, Rahel Nardos, reflects on what it means to be both a US citizen and an immigrant during the pandemic and the struggles that come with the feeling of being in two worlds at the same time.

October 27, 2020
WFF Board Member, Rahel Nardos, started a new position as associate professor in the division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Minnesota where she also serves as the Director of Global Women's Health in the UMN School of Medicine.
July 2, 2019

Washington Global Health Alliance’s Field Notes spotlights WFF's longtime partner TERREWODE and its new hospital in June 14 issue.

June 18, 2019
WFF’s long-time partner, TERREWODE, has completed construction on the TERREWODE Women’s Community Hospital. Women and girls with childbirth injuries such as obstetric fistula will receive holistic care under one state-of-the-art roof in Uganda.
June 7, 2019

The dedicated fistula hospital is the first in East Africa and third in Africa.

April 10, 2019
The local news organization features WFF in an article about our 4th annual An Evening to Restore Dignity in downtown Chicago.
March 13, 2019
Washington Global Health Alliance’s Field Notes highlights survivor turned advocate Sarah Omega in their March 8 issue.
December 5, 2018
Tracy Spitznagle always knew she wanted to be a physical therapist, but she had no idea she would become an advocate for women and girls with childbirth injuries.
September 24, 2018
Giving Compass features WFF's merger with One By One in this article about how to successfully combine two organizations.
September 20, 2018
Seattle, WA — On October, 18, 2018 Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) will host the 3rd Annual Night Out For Fistula fundraising event at Mount Baker Community Club. The evening will feature keynote speaker Dr. Lewis Wall. Wall has dedicated his life to helping women and girls devastated by obstetric fistula, a life shattering injury developed during prolonged, obstructed labor that leaves survivors physically disabled, often ostracized and living in isolation.
June 18, 2018
Minerva: Obstetric fistula might be the worst thing you’ve never heard of. Meet two women who are trying to make it a thing of the past.
May 22, 2018
WFF Kenya Partner Sarah Omega recounts her 12-year struggle with fistula and determination to end the injury that nearly ruined her life.
April 25, 2018
Chicago — When Dr. Itengré Ouédraogo first proposed maternal health organization Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) launch services in Burkina Faso, no one imagined the nonprofit would celebrate the success at An Evening to Restore Dignity on May 17 at Barrio Chicago.
April 22, 2018

Founder Dr. Lewis Wall's research cited in continued discussion of whether New York City should remove the statue of a famous 19 century gynecologist.

March 16, 2018
Schaumburg, Ill. — One By One (OBO) and Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) will join forces to help more women living with childbirth injuries such as fistula, a preventable condition that leaves poor women constantly leaking urine or feces.
March 8, 2018
Dr. Rahel Nardos writes of her recent experiences with racial bias as a doctor and educator in Portland. “Even when you achieve the highest academic or economic standards,” she writes, “you aren't protected from racial bias.”
February 23, 2018
A new book about obstetric fistula is helping to eradicate the traumatic injury it describes. More than two million women worldwide are living with fistula, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Obstetric fistula is most prevalent in poor, developing countries where women and girls do not have access to quality healthcare.
February 6, 2018
WFF Founder Dr. Lewis Wall’s work to pass a bill of rights for patients with obstetric fistula is highlighted in this call for women suffering from the devastating childbirth injury to receive quality healthcare services.
August 2, 2017
Schaumburg, IL – Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF), a global maternal health nonprofit headquartered in Schaumburg, was awarded a $5,000 grant from Million Dollar Round Table Foundation. This grant provides for the vital nutritional needs of women at Danja Fistula Center in Niger while they undergo life-changing repair surgeries after suffering the devastating childbirth injury, obstetric fistula.
July 26, 2017
Rahel Nardos, M.D. ’03, director of global health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University, was recently elected secretary of the Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) Board of Directors. Nardos has been key in developing and growing WFF’s collaborative medical education programs in Ethiopia to increase access to quality maternal care and build capacity in the developing world.
July 12, 2017
University of Alabama at Birmingham features WFF’s new Board Member, Dr. Holly Richter, on her joining WFF and her upcoming trip to Danja Fistula Center.
June 2, 2017
The New York TimesNicholas Kristof features WFF’s Board Member, Dr. Rahel Nardos, in his latest op-ed on how US cuts to International Aid are hurting maternal health programs abroad.
May 31, 2017
Dr. Kim Darey, Medical Director in Obstetrics at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, is a WFF supporter and highlighted us in her Chicago Defender spotlight as an inspiring local leader for women (see page 28).  
April 18, 2017
Dr. Rahel Nardos promotes An Evening to Restore Dignity fundraiser on May 18th and discusses WFF's collaborative Urogynecology Fellowship Training Program which trains local OB-GYNs while healing local Ethiopian women with Make it Better.
March 17, 2017
On Thursday, May 18th, 2017, from 6 – 8 pm, 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.
May 6, 2016
In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the devastating effect of obstetric fistulas. But many women are at risk for a severe condition that affects even more people than fistulas: pelvic organ prolapse.
December 17, 2015
In Uganda, 13-year-old Irene was in labor and alone. Her parents were deceased and her boyfriend had left her when he learned of her pregnancy. She begged a friend to take her to a rural clinic. Her labor was prolonged and the baby was stuck. They sent her to a health center and then she was finally ambulanced unconscious to Mulago Hospital. Irene nearly died in childbirth.
August 12, 2015
WFF Headquarters in Schaumburg, IL — Soja Orlowski, former Director of Communications & Marketing, is promoted to Executive Director for Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF).
March 26, 2015
Michael Wittek of rural Lake City has been appointed chair of the Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) board.
March 4, 2015
Dr. Rahel Nardos, a urogynecologist at Kaiser Permanente in Clackamas, recently returned from a humanitarian trip to train more Ethiopian doctors to prevent and treat devastating childbirth injuries.
February 26, 2015
Accessible health care advocate Michael Wittek is named Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) Board Chair to deliver health services for underserved women in sub-Saharan Africa.
February 26, 2015
Local Associate Professor and Residency Coordinator at Washington University joins the Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) Board to bring health services to underserved women in sub-Saharan Africa.
February 17, 2015
Local doctor Rahel Nardos joined the Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF) Board and traveled to Mekelle, Ethiopia with a team from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) January 30 – February 15, 2015, for an intensive schedule of surgery and teaching at Mekelle University’s Ayder Referral Hospital and the Mekelle Hamlin Fistula Center.
August 24, 2013
She hadn’t even had her first period before getting pregnant, Dr. Lewis Wall recalled. Like most girls in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, she had no choice in whom to marry or when to have children.
August 1, 2013
The Giving Library serves nonprofit organizations and philanthropists alike by offering a compelling medium, enhancing and highlighting the visibility of organizations across the country.
July 22, 2013
The comments of Maggie Bangser, a founding director of the Women’s Dignity Project (letter, July 18), in response to Nicholas D. Kristof’s July 14 column about obstetric fistula, make the valid point that the ultimate solution to these catastrophic complications of childbirth is the creation of effective medical delivery systems that meet women’s reproductive health care needs.
July 13, 2013
DANJA, Niger — THEY straggle in by foot, donkey cart or bus: humiliated women and girls with their heads downcast, feeling ashamed and cursed, trailing stink and urine.
May 12, 2012
THIS is a Mother’s Day tribute to a mighty woman and to the doctor who gave her back her life — and also a celebration of a grand new women’s hospital that you as readers helped to build.
October 31, 2009
Perhaps the most wretched people on this planet are those suffering obstetric fistulas.
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