WAHA - Women and Health Alliance International

Medical students receive training within the 400 bed university hospital, which acts as the referral centre for four district hospitals and serves a population of four million across the region. The staff of approximately includes 50 doctors, 150 nursing staff, 3 pharmacists, 90 care staff and 25 laboratory scientists. The University aims to continue to increase the number of graduates enrolled in its various courses, so that a growing number of young people will have the skills to contribute in the ongoing efforts to speed up development in the country.

In 2009, Gondar University Hospital and WAHA created a new partnership to create a fistula treatment department and teaching facility within the medical school. In addition, WAHA will be supporting the Department of Obstetrics and Gynacology to improve access to emergency Caesarean sections and to provide the additional materials and equipment that are needed to best the best quality care. WAHA is also developing a comprehensive maternal care intervention within Gondar Region to improve access to emergency obstetric care by reducing delays in care seeking among women before and during their deliveries. Read more about this project under our activities.

http://www.uog.edu.et/

The university teaching hospital has 215 beds, 334 staff and employs 28 doctors working in different specialties, 5 health officers, 4 anaesthetists, 123 nursing staff, 9 pharmacists, 15 laboratory technicians and 150 supportive care and administrative staff.  In addition, the hospital is the medical referral centre for a population of 3 million inhabitants in East Arassi zone and a clinical teaching and research centre.
Read more about this project under our activities.

http://www.adama-university.net/

Jimma University provides multidisciplinary and integrated teaching and is a pioneer in public health training in Ethiopia. It has an excellent and long-standing reputation in producing public health and medical professionals that work both nationally and beyond. Jimma University offers a graduate program in monitoring and evaluation of health programmes and services and also publishes the biannual Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences.

http://www.ju.edu.et/

Today, AMREF implements its projects through country programmes in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and South Africa and provides training and consulting support to an additional 30 African countries.

AMREF’s mission is to ensure that every African can enjoy the right to good health by helping to create vibrant networks of informed communities that work with empowered health care providers in strong health systems. Much of AMREF’s focus is on women’s health, and they have been a leading player in the fight against fistula, with major programmes in several East African countries. In Tanzania alone, 34 doctors have been trained in fistula surgery and more than 2500 women with fistula have been treated.

In 2009, WAHA established a partnership with AMREF to carry out fistula treatment camps at various district hospitals in Kenya. During these camps, which usually last for one week, surgeons from WAHA and AMREF teams work with district hospital doctors to train them in fistula treatment techniques, and operate up to 40 cases. Through this partnership, over 100 cases of fistula were successfully treated in the last six months of 2009, and 10 doctors trained in fistula surgery. Read more about this project under our activities.

http://www.amref.org/

UNFPA spearheads the global Campaign to End Fistula, a collaborative initiative to prevent this injury of childbirth and to restore the health and dignity of those who have been living with its consequences.

In 2009, WAHA became a partner of the End Fistula Campaign, enabling us to participate in the Fistula Network (http://www.fistulanetwork.org/FistulaNetwork/) in terms of sharing information with other partners who are also working in fistula prevention, treatment and social reintegration. WAHA shares the aims and vision of the End Fistula Campaign, believing that the goal of eradicating fistula will be achieved more quickly once different organisations and groups join in collaborative efforts to enhance their activities across the world.

http://www.endfistula.org/

WAHA International  co-sponsored the 2009 conference and participated in the organising committee for the event which was held in Nairobi. The conference included speakers from across the full spectrum of fistula care team including 307 fistula surgeons, women who have undergone fistula treatment, midwives and other experts working in the field and representing 31 countries. WAHA’s contribution enabled several participants who would otherwise have been unable to afford to attend the conference to benefit from travel scholarships.

WAHA International is also supporting the 2010 conference which will be held in Dakar, Senegal.

http://www.isofs2010.org/

The organisation implements community awareness campaigns to educate rural populations about obstetric fistula, sets up training initiatives to increase the number of specialists with the necessary skills to carry out fistula repair, and carries out fistula treatment camps across the country.

In 2009, WAHA established a partnership with SIEF to implement fistula training activities and fistula treatment camps, in collaboration with a University Teaching Hospital. The overall conception and management of the project is lead by Professor Guèye, who lectures at the Cheikh Anta Diop University and is Head of the Urology Department at the General Hospital of Grand-Yoff. Professor Gueye was recently elected president of the African Organisation for Research and Teaching on Cancer (AORTIC), an African organisation for research and training in cancer.

The partnership between WAHA and SIFE has already resulted in community mobilisation and sensitisation activities about fistula and a fistula treatment camp in Mbour.

Read more about this project under our projects.

The project has been lead throughout the past 25 years by Dr Kees Waaldjik, undoubtedly one of the world’s most experienced fistula surgeons. The project includes 8 fistula repair centres in the north of Nigeria, 1 in the south of Nigeria, and additionally provides substantial support to 3 centres in Niger. Two international fistula training centers have been established – one in Katsina and one in Kano, enabling doctors, nurses and other professionals from all over the world to come for training in all aspects of fistula care. In addition, in Katsina, Kano and Kaduna State, separate rehabilitation centres have been esta­blished.

In 2008, a total of 2,350 fistula repairs were performed by the project, bringing the total number of fistula repairs carried out by the project to an astounding 29,684. Over the course of its lifetime, NNFP has trained 321 are doctors, 326 are nurses/midwives and 70 other health workers. 19 workshops have been held over the same period enabling the lessons learned from this project to be shared with other fistula programmes around the world. In addition to providing an exceptional level of fistula surgery, a key objective of NNFP has been to ensure an evidence base for treatment through the meticulous documentation of each case, individual long-term follow-up, implementation of a patient database and analytical research from the patient data.

At the end of 2009, WAHA established a partnership with the Nigeria National Fistula Project to support the fistula repair centres, to expand the training activities, to develop face-to-face and e-learning materials, and to establish an online archive of patient data, including photographic and clinical information.

Read more about this project under our activities.

The vision of the PMNCH is a world where all women and children receive the care they need to live healthy, productive lives, while their mission is to support the global health community to work successfully towards achieving MDGs 4 and 5. This is expected to be done by enhancing partners’ interactions and using their comparative advantages to achieve the following objectives:

Build consensus on, and promote evidence-based high-impact interventions and means to deliver them through harmonization;

Contribute to raising US$ 30 billion (for 2009-2015) to improve maternal, newborn and child health through advocacy; and 'track partners' commitments and measurement of progress for accountability.

In 2009, WAHA established a partnership with PMNCH to reach the following objectives:

1.      Raise the profile of maternal, newborn and child health issues at global and country levels and mobilizing needed resources

2.      Harmonise and scale up coverage rates of effective essential interventions

3.      Improve and enhance leadership and governance in maternal, newborn and child health.

Founded in 1919, the International Federation comprises 186 member Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The Federation's vision is to strive, through voluntary action, for a world of empowered communities, better able to address human suffering and crises with hope, respect for dignity and a concern for equity.

The Federation’s mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. Vulnerable people are those who are at greatest risk from situations that threaten their survival, or their capacity to live with an acceptable level of social and economic security and human dignity. Often, these are victims of natural disasters, poverty brought about by socio-economic crises, refugees, and victims of health emergencies

Founded 31 January 1983, the Red Crescent of the State of the United Arab Emirates received international recognition on 27 August 1986, as a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent.

WAHA and the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent formed a partnership in 2010 to implement a project to improving access to surgical treatment for fistula for women living in Gondar Province in Ethiopia. In 2011 another partnership was established to set up a mother - child hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, in order to improve obstetric and neonatal care for the population.

Foundation funds support fistula surgery, training of surgeons, building of hospitals and operating rooms dedicated to fistula surgery, “mobile” care clinics where no hospitals exist in rural areas of the world, empowering dedicated doctors in developing countries and outreach and education to let women know where they can receive fistula treatment.  

Since 2010, the Fistula Foundation has been partnering with WAHA International to provide funding for fistula surgeries, fistula surgery training, construction, equipment and outreach activities for a range of important WAHA projects including:

Bangladesh:  Cox’s Bazaar Hospital for Women and Children (2011)

Cameroon:  University Teaching Hospital (2010)

Chad:  Center for Reproductive Health (2011)

Ethiopia:  Gondar University College of Medicine and Health Sciences’ new international fistula training and treatment center (2011)

Kenya:  Fistula treatment activities in Dabaab Hospital and nearby refugee camps for Somalis seeking asylum (2011)

Niger:  Central Maternity Hospital and Niamey National Hospital Fistula Pavilion (2010)

Senegal:  Kedougou Hospital (2010)

Sudan:  Dr. Abbo Khartoum Teaching Hospital FistulaCenter (2011)

Multi-site:  Funding for a fleet of 100 all-terrainambulance vehicles to be deployed  in remote rural areas where WAHA International is working (2011)

http://www.fistulafoundation.org/

In the rural region of Kedougou for example, the maternal mortality rate is extremely high at 703/100,000 live births.

The Senegalese Ministry of Health and Prevention and the Medical Region of Kédougou have signed a partnership with WAHA International to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in the Kedougou Region.

The program aims to i) improve access and uptake of emergency obstetric and neonatal care services and ii) provide treatment for post-partum complications including obstetric fistula.

The Network focuses also on enhancing the expanded role of the midwife in promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights by identifying available scientific evidence and encouraging its use. The Network also encourages more action-oriented research to be undertaken by midwives. Initiated in Tanzania in 1992, the Network has active members from Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and Eritrea.

In 2010, the African Midwives Research Network, the University of Nairobi and WAHA International organized the first international midwives conference for East Africa. The conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya between the 27-31th July and explored the role of midwives in tackling Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5.

The conference also specifically focused on the role that African midwives can play in the prevention and early treatment of obstetric fistula through:

- Provision of comprehensive antenatal care
- Promoting skilled birth attendance
- Providing comprehensive post-partum care
- Advocating for early management of fistula
- Conducting research in midwifery and nursing practices

WAHA International and the African Midwives Research Network will continue to join their efforts to reduce maternal mortality in Africa and to explore new strategies for improving access to prevention and treatment for obstetric fistula.

http://www.amrn.org/

The overall objective of LIRASEF is to conduct research, develop health education activities for clinicians, and African populations and to establish collaborations with different international organisation with a view to promoting strong research and health education. In addition, LIRASEF implements strategies that aim to enable access to health education by the poorest members of society.

In 2009, WAHA established a partnership with LIRASEF to implement two projects: i) a cervical cancer screening and treatment project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, the University Teaching Hospital and the Comité National de Lutte Contre le cancer au Cameroun, and ii) a fistula education and treatment programme with the University Teaching Hospital of Yoande and the Ministry of Public Health.

The head of both projects, Dr Pierre Marie Tebeu is a gynaecologist obstetrician with additional training in fistula surgery, and also holds a Masters degree in public health from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium. As well as leading the activities at LIRASEF, he also works as a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at Yaoundé University and at the University Teaching Hospital as a doctor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The partnership between WAHA and LIRASEF has already resulted in community sensitisation activities about cervical cancer and screening and testing campaigns. In addition, an awareness programme and fistula treatment activities have commenced in the University Teaching Hospital in Yaoundé with 30 patients operated by 25 January 2010, and this activity will continue all the year. Read more about this project under our activities.

The Ministry of Public Health is responsible for the development, implementation and continuous evaluation of the country's public health policies. It ensures the organization, management and the development of training in the public hospitals and is responsible for preventive medicine, all medical professions and the professional orders and public health organizations.

This partnership between the Ministry of Public Health and WAHA International will focus on providing surgical treatment in the North of the country, where there is a particularly high burden of fistula in the population.

The University Hospital of Yaounde (CHUY) is a state run university that acts as a referral centre for the population of Yaounde and the rest of the country. It is in charge of training students of the medical profession, supervising medical research, and plays an important role in the development of medical and paramedical care.  


The 178 bed hospital has 585 staff members which include 69 physicians, 111 nurses, 6 midwives, 3 pharmacists, 19  lab technicians and 8 radiologists.

WAHA International and the National Midwife association of Cameroon have developed a partnership to support initiatives which promote maternal health. In March 2010, we organised together a conference on obstetric emergencies in Yaounde which brought together over 300 health workers including midwives and traditional birth attendants.

In May 2010, the association also participated in the first international conference for midwives from french speaking africa, co-organised by WAHA,  where the role of midwifery in the prevention and early treatment of fistula was explored.

The Faculty of Medicine was established to work for the improvement of the health sector by training qualified medical doctors to respond to the urgent need for clinicians across the country. The objectives of the Medical School of the University of Hargeisa are:

1.   Provide general medical training to students and orient them towards community health care priorities and meet high international standards of quality.

2.   Promote a patient-centered clinical method.

3.   Be involved in programs of continued medical education designed to maintain and upgrade the competence of doctors currently practicing in Somaliland.

4.   Develop and support programs of research in the basic and clinical sciences with emphasis on areas of special need to Somaliland.

In addition, the University continues to expand opportunities for training other human resources for health. In collaboration with Edna Adan Maternity Hospital and THET, the university will start a BSc. Midwifery programme in March 2011, the first of its kind in the country.

WAHA International and the University of Hargeisa have partnered with the aim of increasing access to specialist training in pediatrics, anesthesia and gynecology-obstetrics for medical students and rehabilitating several parts of the university hospital.  This partnership forms part of a broader project being implemented by WAHA International and its partners to improve maternal health throughout the country.

In addition to services and facilities relating specifically to maternal and infant care, the hospital has diagnostic laboratory facilities and an emergency Blood Bank; and provides diagnosis and treatment for Sexually Transmitted Diseases including testing for HIV/AIDS.

In May 2010, WAHA International and the UAE Red Crescent conducted a fistula treatment in the hospital. Over 30 patients received treatment and several anesthetists and surgeons were trained. We still regularly operate cases there and are planning new fistula cases in the future.

WAHA is developing a partnership with Edna Adan Hospital in order to provide medical specialists who can operate there on a regular basis and support the training of medical personnel.

http://www.ednahospital.org/

The Boroma Fistula Hospital and WAHA International are working in partnership to implement further fistula care services in the future. The joint activities include some rehabilitation work of the hospital infrastructure as well as human resource development activities. Dr Qaws is a fistula surgeon based in the hospital who regularly collaborates with WAHA International.

In 2010, WAHA International and Boroma Fistula Hospital organised three fistula camps bringing  women from Somaliland and from Kismayo in southern Somalia. In total 69 patients were operated.

The association aims to mobilise midwives around the need for the continuous training of health workers in order to be sure that they are able to identify the early signs of complications during labour and childbirth, and in this way reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.

WAHA International and the midwife association of Benin have been partners since May 2010. Together we organised the First International Conference of Midwives from French speaking Africa. The conference explored the role of midwives in the prevention and early treatment of obstetric fistula.

It is one of the oldest French language universities in West Africa and has an enrollment of over 60,000.the university has played an important role in the development of West African countries by training human resources.

WAHA International collaborator Prof. Serigne Gueye is a Professor of Urology at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop.

The organisation initially specialised in cardiac surgery and over time has extended its services to include orthopaedic, neurosurgery and  reconstructive surgery among others.  Created initially in France in 1998, the organisation now exists in UK, USA, Brazil, Lebanon, Israel, among other countries.

For the past three years ‘La Chaîne de L’Espoir’ has managed a pediatric hospital in Kabul (French Medical Institute for Children of Afghanistan) and is extending its services to include obstetrics and neonatal care. Within this context, WAHA International and the Chaîne de l’Espoir are currently exploring ways to develop a maternal health programme in Kabul which would include obstetric fistula repair.

Since July 2010, WAHA International and the Central Maternity of Zinder are working in partnership to increase the capacity of the maternity to  provide surgical treatment for  more women living with obstetric fistula. Surgery is carried out by Dr. Lucien Djangnikpo while another two surgeons are also provided with training.

Read more about our programmes in Niger.

It is a Public Charitable Trust registered in Kerala State  with the objective of improving community  health.  WAHA International and PRINCE health foundation are currently evaluating what women's health programmes they can develop together in Kerala state, India.

http://www.prince.org.in

Ethiopiaid started life in the UK in 1989 after Sir Alec Reed travelled to Ethiopia and witnessed the immense – yet preventable - suffering and hardship of many Ethiopians. Ethiopiaid extended into Australia in 2008 and was labelled a Charitable Trust by the Australian Taxation Office, allowing them to fundraise in all Australian states. International offices are also located in Canada and Ireland.

WAHA International and the Ethiopiaid Australia Foundation formed a partnership in June 2012; thanks to this collaboration, huge advancements are being made in fistula treatment and maternal healthcare at the university teaching hospital of Gondar.

http://ethiopiaid.org.au/

Since April 2011, Who’s Recruiting Direct is covering the costs of fistula surgery for two women each month in Guinea.

The support of Who’s Recruiting Direct will help provide free fistula surgery for 24 women each year.

It is envisioned as a long term partnership for WAHA’s activities. To find out more. 

It is located within the premises of Khartoum Teaching Hospital which is the biggest tertiary hospital in Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan.

It was established in the late 80’s. In its early days the center was merely a ward allocated for fistula patients.

But with the ambition and appreciable efforts of Prof Abbo, and with the help of donations from local and international NGOs and charity organizations, it is now a two floors building.

The center have a preoperative ward ( 28 beds) , postoperative ward   (16 beds) , waiting ward ( 10 beds) , operating compound , urodynamics lab, nursing station , sterilization room, doctors office. Operations include fistula repairs as well as pelvic floor reconstructive surgery and contienance surgery.

AORTIC executive members are high profile experts in the cancer field who volunteer as knowledge workers for the plight of cancer patients in Africa.

WAHA International attended AORTIC's strategic planning meeting in 2010 where a parntership was agreed to implement projects that promote the early detection and early treatment of breast and cervical cancers in Africa.

In 2011 WAHA International and Médecins du Monde partnered to provide maternal and child care to the local and refugee population in Dadaab, Kenya.

The  goal of this federation is to maintain and develop  communication and cooperation among hospitals and health care organizations in order to improve the health services offered to the population. It  is a unique arena for health organizations to act upon their critical concerns.

In 2011, WAHA and the IHF partnered to form "The Hospital Initiative for Patient Solidarity". This is a solidarity network between hospitals and patients in high-income countries and hospitals and patients in low-income countries. It promotes a patient-to-patient support system based on voluntary contributions from patients in high-income countries to help patients in low income countries access hospital level maternal and new-born care.

In this way it is possible to cover crucial funding gaps and ensure that the most urgent needs in obstetric and neonatal care are being met.

Read more about our partner.

In November 2011 Etihad partnered with WAHA International to help transport relief supplies to WAHA projets.

Read our latest update on this partnership here.

Little or no assistance was being given in terms of safe, secure shelter to help families survive the first days, weeks and months as they tried to rebuild their lives.

WAHA International and ShelterBox have been working together since 2011, deploying hundreds of ShelterBoxes to needy families in Mogadishu. The tents are used to improve the living conditions of displaced families and  to create a « medical village ». The medical village is a health centre, complete with delivery room, consultations rooms and pharmacy all under Shelterbox tents. Hospitalised patients stay in tents together with their families.