Footsteps to Healing Event

One of my neighbors came by a few weeks ago to tell me that she'd just signed on to go on a trip to Ethiopia this November. She's an RN at OHSU. I wanted to pass along some information about an event you might be interested in if you live in the Portland area:

The problem: Women in rural Ethiopia experience one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality and morbidity due to lack of access to basic obstetric care. As a result, women in these areas suffer from long-term complications such as obstetric fistula and pelvic organ prolapse.

The goal: To alleviate this dire situation, a group of health care providers from OHSU will be travelling to Gimbie Adventist Hospital in Western Ethiopia in November 2010. The team will perform over 40-50 life-altering surgeries while providing training to the two local Ethiopian surgeons to build the capacity to perform these services in perpetuity. Additionally, a partnership will be created between OHSU midwives and nurses and the nursing school at Gimbie en route to a long-term family planning and midwifery training collaboration