A Walk to Beautiful

The young Ethiopian women come silently on foot, over hundreds of miles of arid, mountainous terrain. These women suffer from obstetric fistula (a hole left in the birth canal caused by prolonged labor), and they have heard of doctors in Addis Ababa who might cure them. A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL tells of Dr. Catherine Hamlin, who arrived in Ethiopia from Australia in 1959 aiming to help alleviate the suffering of young women injured during childbirth. Largely eliminated in the United States and Europe with improved obstetric care– and the use of C-sections– to relieve obstructed labor, fistula still wreaks havoc on the lives of hundreds of thousands of women in developing nations, many of whom have no access to care during pregnancy. In Ethiopia alone, there are an estimated 100,000 women suffering from untreated fistula. Dr. Hamlin still soldiers on in her Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, which has changed the lives of more than 30,000 women. A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL is a moving film that puts a human face on the international fistula crisis. (In Amharic with English subtitles and English) – BB