Enable 50 Women in Angola to Generate Income

We are so honored to partner with our Aftercare Team at CEML Hospital in Lubango, Angola, in providing empowerment opportunities for our sisters recovering from fistula surgery. These opportunities include craft skills, gardening lessons, literacy/numeracy education, and teaching in local languages.

As you may or may not know, COVID-19 has reached Angola. As of June 1, 2020, there are 84 cases and 4 deaths. This lower number could mean the case numbers are low or it could show a lack of tests. In any case, we are keeping our team and sisters in our hearts as they live and work through the pandemic.

The government of Angola, after declaring a state of emergency for the country, temporarily opened their internal boarders so the ten women who had healed from fistula could leave the hospital and return to their families. This cut their time at the hospital and in the program short, but they left with more marketable skills and confidence than when they arrived.

With twelve women still at the hospital, the staff, which now follows a very reduced COVID-19 schedule, has found ways to connect with the women and ensure their care and growth while maintaining social distancing and in light of the limited resources due to the pandemic. We are hopeful that once COVID-19 is under control within Angola, women with fistula will be able to travel to CEML Hospital for repair and to engage in the Aftercare Program.

Thank you for enabling us to come alongside our sisters as they obtain experience and learning that will improve their lives as well as those of their families and communities!

We will continue to send quarterly updates on the status of this project, and share photos and individual patient stories as able. Please spread the word if you know someone who might be interested in supporting this endeavor and follow along on our social media pages (Facebook: Hope For Our Sisters, Inc. // Instagram: brookehfos) to learn more about our sisters, our medical partners, and our mission. 

Links:

• Hope for Our Sisters, Inc. Website

Hope For Our Sisters, Inc. is happy to be able to provide our first impact report on the project that you have so generously helped to fund through GlobalGiving. As you may recall, we began this project in order to support our partners at the CEML hospital in Lubango, Angola as they empower women recovering from fistula surgery with craft skills, gardening lessons, literacy/numeracy education, and teaching in local languages. Many women who have suffered from fistula have been abandoned by their husbands and families, and are unable to return to their villages and pick up life as it was. Left to provide for themselves in a context that is so different from the life they expected, many women are deeply disadvantaged because of their lack of formal education and skills training. 

Our partners report that from November to February,

• Eight women were able to participate in lessons for the local language Nhaneka.
• The Portugese classes normally held are temporarily suspended because the teacher actually has been stricken with fistula herself and is recovering. The team is trying to pull together an official contract for her so that when she is fully healed, she will have a good salary as an educator.
• Most impressive, as many as twenty women have been attending sewing classes! They are using time outside of the classroom to continue working on the projects, and five women actually made skirts for our team members as Christmas gifts. 

We are so thankful to be able to come alongside our sisters as they strive for knowledge that will improve their lives and those of their communities and the generations coming behind them. We will continue to send quarterly updates on the status of this project, and share photos and individual patient stories as able. Please spread the word if you know someone who might be interested in supporting this endeavor, and follow along on our social media pages (Facebook: Hope For Our Sisters, Inc. // Instagram: brookehfos) to learn more about our sisters, our partners and our mission. 

Links:

• HFOS Website