What impressed me when I visited the Fistula hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, founded by Catherine Hamlin was the wonderful relief on the faces of the injured girls who had struggled there, on foot, or after arduous journeys by bus or donkey.
Some were victims of “early marriage”, damaged in childbirth before their bodies were fully developed. They were welcomed by girls who had shared their ordeal, offered a bed with clean sheets, given good food and allowed to gain strength before their surgery.
During this time, they would spend their days in a central garden designed by Catherine. For a young girl, ostracised in a filthy hut on the edge of a remote village, the hospital was more than a godsend, it often became a refuge for life.
