The founder of Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, the famous Dr Catherine Hamlin AC will be visiting Mudgee on Thursday, April 10 at 6.30 at the AREC convention shed.

Dr Hamlin will present a short film, A Walk to Beautiful, which tells the story of the journey of five women to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital for treatment.

Mudgee’s Professor Morris Webb, a member of the American College of Surgeons, has had an ongoing association with the famous Dr Hamlin for many years, having introduced her to the Oprah Winfrey Show, winning her cause much needed support.

Professor Webb said Dr Hamlin spoke to the American College of Surgeons in Chicargo to a standing ovation from 3,000 surgeons.

He said Dr Hamlin was trained in obstetrics and gynecology and went to Ethiopia with her husband to set up a Midwifery Hospital in 1959.

Forty nine years later, she is still there and still operating aged 84 years old, at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.

The hospital treats young African girls who, because of poverty and malnutrition, have stunting in their skeleton and therefore, the pelvis, and are not given adequate emergency obstetric care when complications arise giving birth.

They develop a fistula, which is a hole that develops over many days of obstructed labour, when the pressure of the baby’s head against the mother’s pelvis cuts off blood supply to delicate tissues in the region.

The dead tissue falls away and the woman is left with a hole between her vagina and her bladder, or between her vagina and rectum, which results in permanent incontinence of urine and/or feces.

The majority of girls who develop fistulas are abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by their community because of the foul smell.

They often live in a chook shed, or hide somewhere else, afraid to move because of the incontinence.

And yet, simple surgery can cure this problem with a 95 percent success rate.

David Mort, who is hosting the visit to Mudgee said anyone wanting to come to the film and presentation evening should RSVP to him at 63 733 576. Tickets are $20 each, which includes supper.