Category Archives: Medical

Footsteps To Healing Book Published

We are pleased to announce that our book, Footsteps To Healing, has been published!  This book relays the intimately personal stories of three Ethiopian women and the maternal health issues they each endure.  In the book, we also outline solutions to help alleviate and heal the various conditions.

Maternal health issues in Ethiopia and other developing nations around the world are devastating to women.  Help us take steps to provide medical training to local health officials, donations of materials, and medical attention to those countries that need it most.

Purchase the book here:  http://stores.lulu.com/ethiopianwomen

Many thanks to David Maier’s Mt. Hood Community College Integrated Media class for taking on the design project, and to student Julia Art for her beautiful design work.

OHSU Lecture: Humanitarian Photography

I will be giving a lecture on Humanitarian Photography on April 21 a 7:00pm at Oregon Health & Sciences University’s Center For Women’s Health.

Here is a link to sign up.  Seating is limited, so registration is required.

Humanitarian Photography Lecture

Return To Ethiopia

It looks like we will be going back to Ethiopia in early 2011 to stay a month.  I will travel with a team of doctors and nurses to a very remote area, where we will focus on obstructive childbirth issues.  I will also be documenting the lifestyle of a rural Ethiopian woman, in an in-depth manner.

Global Soul International, a 501c3 organization, will help us with fund-raising for this effort.  Donations are also accepted online here under the Projects section.

Ethiopia: Everywoman’s Health Sends Two Physicians To Perform Surgeries

One of Portland’s most successful private practices, Everywoman’s Health, sent two surgeons to assist with the surgeries in Ethiopia.  Owners Dr. Philippa Ribbink and Dr. Kim Suriano took time from their busy schedules to provide care to the women in Ethiopia.  Their partners back home had to fill in during their absence, so appreciation goes to the whole practice for assisting with this incredibly important work.

Read Dr. Philippa Ribbink’s first hand account on her blog.

Ethiopia: A Book Is Created

David Maier’s integrated design class at Mount Hood Community College will be taking on the assignment of creating a book that will depict the state of women’s health in rural Ethiopia.

A copy can be obtained by purchasing is directly from www.lulu.com.

Here are some images that I gave the students to use for this book:

Book Content

Faces of Ethiopian Women and Children

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Ethiopia: End Of The Day

Our last day stretches long, and we can’t sleep.  We have a 10 hour drive ahead of us in the morning, but all we can do is walk around the surgeon’s house and find mindless things to do.  Where is that coffee mug? Did you get a photo of the view outside from the porch? Should we freeze our water we will take in the vehicle? What should we pack for lunch?  Where is the headlight I just set down?

It is all nervous energy to diffuse our real feelings: we are not ready to leave. We all agree that we have only scratched the surface regarding how we can help this hospital do its vitally important work.

Ethiopia: The Beginning Of Man

It is said that the beginning of manhood began in Ethiopia.  Looking at the faces here, I believe it.

Here is a model of “Selam”, representing the earliest and most complete skeleton of a child human ancestor ever discovered in the history of paleoanthropology.  She was about three years old when she died 3.3 million years ago.  This was 150,000 years before “Lucy”, whose skeleton was also discovered in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia: A Fusion Of Cultures

Dr. Rahel Nardos moves calmly down the aisles of the ward, smiling and touching the arms of patients.  Growing up in Addis Ababa, Rahel earned a scholarship to attend the American School.  She set off to America to get her undergraduate degree, and soon was sitting in a classroom at Yale, enrolled in medical school.  Her work is becoming more refined as a urogynocologist as a fellow at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU).

Rahel is devoted to her country, and feels a strong desire to return in some way to help women’s health in rural settings.  She is writing a proposal so that OHSU might start sending a rotation of doctors to Gimbie Hospital.  We all have high hopes that this proposal will go through.  The women of Ethiopia and the medical staff at Gimbie will benefit, and the OHSU students will increase their knowledge by working with pathologies rarely seen in the United States.

Rahel worked day and night at Gimbie Hospital, long after the other doctors retired for the night. Most importantly, she connected with the women via hope and understanding.

We are in awe of you, Rahel, and hope to be a part of your journey.

(See extremely tired Rahel dancing to Madagascar’s Olombelo Ricky’s music here.)

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