by Mikaela Robertson | Jun 13, 2025 | Stories
Halim is around 22 years old and she’s spent her life living in a nomadic village, in the Afar desert in Ethiopia. It’s a harsh life – dry, dusty and incredibly hot – with no comforts whatsoever. In her community, women often walk for hours to get water before the sun...
by Mikaela Robertson | May 23, 2025 | Stories
Barachi's Journey to Healing Fistulas are devastating injuries that women can suffer during childbirth if they do not have access to maternity health services. This International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, we want to share with you Barachi’s story. Barachi...
by Mikaela Robertson | Apr 4, 2025 | Stories
Hilda suffered an obstetric fistula during childbirth as a teenager. Hear her story below. Hilda’s Story: From Ashamed to Ambassador! When Hilda was fifteen, she was married and soon fell pregnant. After three days of labour, Hilda was in critical...
by Mikaela Robertson | Nov 21, 2024 | Stories
Loretta is from Chad, right in the centre of Africa. She had been living with a fistula for three years and is now a widow. Loretta had already used all her savings to travel from Chad to Cameroon to be operated upon, but devastatingly, that operation...
by Barbara May Foundation | Oct 4, 2024 | Stories
Her Story – these profile stories cover the experiences of the women BMF are helping every day in Africa. This story does not include an image of Agness to honour her privacy. Agness, aged 25, was married in 2018 and got pregnant with her first child....
by Barbara May Foundation | Dec 19, 2023 | Stories
Meet Birtukan, who lives outside Barhirdar. During her fifth pregnancy her baby was dangerously small. Thankfully, she had been attending the clinic in the BMF sponsored hospital in town. During this time, severe fighting broke out around her village as part of a...