Photo  L- R

Paul McNeil / Susie Hope./ President Tim Hale / Past President Mike Cumming

Forfar Rotary Club is the first club in District 1010 to hand over a cheque to the “Freedom from Fistula Foundation” Past President Mike Cumming was at an event at Kinfauns Castle where Ann Gloag set down the challenge to all Rotarians in Scotland and  President Tim Hale and the Council members  gave the venture the nod of approval.
Representatives for the Charity Susie Hope and Paul McNeil attended this weeks meeting and gave a very thought provoking presentation of  The Freedom from Fistula Foundation  which was founded by Ann Gloag. Some of the facts from the talk revealed why Forfar Rotary Club decided to pay for the two year cost of training a midwife which at £1300, in Britain is a small price to pay. We in the western world cannot begin imagine the trauma women in the third world suffer due to pregnancy and the resultant Fistula.

The main goal of the Fistula Foundation is to provide not only badly needed medical treatment, but also a working staff built upon from with-in the country itself, to establish proper care and treatment for this terrible condition that these women must endure day in and day out. They are often ostracised by the communities that they live in and their husbands usually abandon them to fend for themselves. Many die in labour there-by creating the worlds highest documented maternal mortality rate among the nations of the world.
Facts
1 woman every 2 seconds is seriously injured or disabled giving birth

An estimated 2 million women in Africa live with obstetric fistula

It is estimated that another 100,000 develop the condition every year

More than 500,000 women die each year during pregnancy or childbirth, mostly in developing nations

80% of these deaths are completely avoidable

Sierra Leone has just 71 doctors and 112 midwives for a population of six million

Liberia has one doctor for every 28,000 people

In 2005, 8 million women around the world experienced life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth

The 5th Millennium Development Goal is to cut maternal deaths by three-quarters by 2015
For more info please access www.freedomfromfistula.org.uk

 The following letter to President Tim can be viewed by opening the link /documents/fistula-letter.pdf I think the club should be proud of this recognition.