Enable 50 Women in Angola to Generate Income

Greetings to all! The team at Hope For Our Sisters Inc., in partnership with the Aftercare team at CEML Hospital in Lubango, Angola, is pleased to bring you our latest impact report for our project to "Enable 50 Women in Angola to Generate Income". As always, we are so thankful for the support of each of you in bringing this program to our sisters who have suffered from fistula and are living at the patient villas in CEML, either awaiting or recovering from surgery. This program equips them with literacy, numeracy, and language classes and teaches them marketable skills such as gardening, sewing, and crafting that they can take forward into their lives outside of the hospital to support themselves and others in their families and communities. These women are able, and amazing, and so deserving of these opportunities. We cannot thank you enough for helping them to realize dreams to learn new things and become more self-sufficient. The growth of this program has also enabled it to become entirely self-sustaining - the sales of products made cover the costs of new materials for the subsequent projects!

From September through November, 60 women attended these courses - some were staying at the hospital for a short time, others have been there for much longer, but all have benefitted from the sessions. A new product was recently trialed and has been selling with success - aprons! One of our teachers, Filomena, who is herself a fistula survivor, is modeling one in the photos attached. 

We also have a story about one of our sweet sisters, Malia, who found renewed hope in her experiences at CEML and is benefitting from the Aftercare program as she continues to recover. When she first arrived at the hospital, she almost broke down trying to tell the staff about her story and experience. In 2007, at age 22, she’d been in labour for a week, and lost her baby in the end. The seemingly endless obstructed labor also resulted in a fistula and severe perineal tear. This meant she couldn’t control her urine or her feces. Her husband left her. She went to live with her parents and did not feel she could talk to anyone. The nurses from CEML had visited Malia where one of her uncles worked. When her relatives realized there was a possibility of a cure, they decided to bring Malia to CEML. When she arrived, she was surprised to discover there were many other women with a similar problem, and they had good conversations together. Her first surgery in September was extremely difficult but thankfully she no longer leaks urine, and further testing showed the rectal tear was also successful! She needed to recover in the patient village before the surgery to reverse the colostomy (placed to allow the area to heal). During this time, she enthusiastically took part in many Aftercare activities in the patient village. She enjoys making baskets and learning to sew. The below photo shows her smiling and holding a bag she made before her surgery. She appreciates the literacy classes, though continues to find it difficult to write her name. For her, the Aftercare program has helped to heal many years of isolation, shame and sadness.

We hope you are continuing to enjoy these reports every four months and, as always, we welcome your feedback or suggestions to Cara, one of our Board members, at cbrooks@hopeforoursisters.org. For more regular updates on all our programs, please visit our website and sign up for our Constant Contact updates 1-2 times per month, or follow us on Facebook! Thank you again for your incredible generosity and support of this cause and these amazing women.

Links:

• HFOS Homepage