Maybe I can help

I was reading the San Jose Mercury News the other day, and I saw the article about Ethiopian women suffering from Fitsula. I'd never heard of this, have you? (see below for a description of what it is, and a link to the article.)

Anyway, I'm not usually someone who does a lot of volunteering or fundraising, or even chartitable giving. I want to, but somehow I never seem to know exactly what to do, or what cause to support, etc. But when I read this article, I thought, boy this is something I could get behind, especially having so recently had two healthy children, and benefited from our great medical care, which I totally take for granted. So I started thinking of ways I could help, and wondered if maybe some of my mom's group friends (with whom I have a monthly Girls Night Out at a local restaurant) might interested too. So, next month, instead of going out to a nice restaurant the way we usually do, I suggested and everyone has agreed that we will go for pizza instead, have just as good a time, but spend a quarter of what we usually would. Then we'll put the difference between the cost of the pizza and what we would have spent into a kitty and donate it to the Fitsula Foundation. Apparently it takes only $450 to fund a surgery to heal one woman, so we have made that our goal. Seems pretty achievable between the 6 of us, especially if we use the dinner money we would have spent anyway.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article which describe the condition and it's effects:

Obstetric fistula is an injury caused by long, drawn-out labor, especially in very young women. When blood supply to the vagina and bladder is cut off, tissues die and a hole forms, allowing urine and sometimes feces to leak out uncontrollably. Adding to their misery, their babies usually die..... Many patients had been divorced by their husbands and shunned by their communities. Some had lingered that way for months or years....... 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, obstetric fistula affects an estimated 2 million women in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Full article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/15011861.htm

Link to the Fitsula Foundation site: http://www.fistulafoundation.org/

Further, we've decided to aim for two projects per year, one like this one where we choose a cause -- likely benefiting mothers or children -- and make a joint donation, and a second project where we do a group volunteering event. I think it's a great way to balance giving ourselves a treat with benefiting other moms less fortunate. Wish us luck!