Greenbriar at Whittingham is a 55+ community in Monroe Tonship, New Jersey.

We, who are at an age where we are close to the end of our lives want to provide hope for the young

women who are still so early in theirs. I am so proud of my community for producing the Etenesh Concert on August 25 th to raise funds for the Fistula Foundation. It is our hope that we can raise $12,380 which will fund surgeries for 20 young women ($619 each) We only have 320 seats to fill so we need help from non-attendees to meet that goal. If you live a distance from us, Please send a check (written to the Fistula Foundation) to

PAC (Etenesh)

100 Whittingham Drive

Monroe Township, NJ

08831

If you are in the vicinity put your check in an envelope marked Etenesh and deposit in PO Box 25 in the

Library room at the Greenbriar at Whittingham Towne Center

We will send all the checks both from attendees and non-attendees together along with our program.

Our only source of funding for this production is from Booster ads in our program. Please consider

taking out a booster ad. Send a check for $10 written to PAC along with whatever sentiment you want to

express and include your name.

Again if you are a distance mark your envelope PAC (Etenesh) to the same address as above

Again, If you are in the vicinity mark your envelope Etenesh and put in PO Box 25 in library room.

Let us join together to say to all the Eteneshes of the world, “You are not alone.” 

About Etenesh

I became acquainted with “Etenesh” in January 2004. She was barely thirteen, close in age to my eldest granddaughter. I happened upon the Oprah Winfrey Show just as Dr. Catherine Hamlin was sharing Etenesh’s story, an Ethiopian child-bride who was impregnated shortly after her first menses. When it came time to give birth, she, like many young first-time mothers with poorly developed pelvises, suffered through a prolonged labor that left her with an obstetric fistula, a birth injury I had never heard of.

It was also the first time I heard of Dr. Catherine Hamlin who was 80 years old at the time of the interview. She and her husband Reginald, both surgeons, had founded The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. At the time it was the only hospital dedicated to fistula repair which Dr Hamlin explained is usually a relatively simple operation. It was also the only place where the operation could be had free of charge, crucial since most of those affected were also impoverished.

Obstetric fistula is a hole between the vagina and bladder or rectum contracted through which urine or stool leaks continuously. Caused by prolonged labor, obstetric fistula is a thing of the past in the United States and the rest of the developed world, where caesarean sections are available to end difficult labors.

More Than Two Million Women worldwide are living with untreated fistulas There are 100,000 new cases of fistulas yearly.

More than Half of those occur in girls under the age of 18 Etenesh had no child to show for her efforts, only fistulas resulting in a loss of urinary and fecal control. Then, deemed unclean, she was shunned both by her community and her family and left to live in an isolation hut at the edge of the family property, ostensibly, for the rest of her life. Her story changes when she hears about Dr Hamlin’s Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital where her fistula can be repaired, and her dignity restored, free of charge. It is a long and arduous journey to the hospital even by bus but no bus will allow Etenesh to board and so she must walk there. It is very hard but it is her only hope.

The fistula Hospital is aptly described as, “an Oasis of Healing” and that healing starts immediately upon arrival where each woman is welcomed with open arms and treated with dignity and compassion. Etenesh meets others like her. They understand her suffering. For the first time in a very long while she realizes she is not alone. The surgery is successful, and once

fully healed from the operation, Etenesh is given a new dress, a free bus-ticket home and a new lease on life.

Etenesh is not her real name, rather an Amharic name meaning, “You are my sister.”

I was so moved by her story that I leapt up from the couch, rushed to my piano and began to sing, “You are my sister…You are not Alone” Within minutes I had a complete song. I have been singing it ever since and using it to help raise money for the Fistula Foundation to help fulfill their mission to rescue women from the ravages of their birth injuries.

Founded in 2000 by former Peace Corps worker, Richard Haas and his daughter, Shaleece specifically to raise funds for Dr. Hamlin’s Addis Ababa fistula Hospital, The Fistula Foundation currently supports doctors and hospitals in twenty-six countries and funds more fistula repair surgeries than any other organization, including the US government and the United Nations.