After touring Africa as part of a holiday in 2007, Ms Jenner saw the poverty and despair some Africans have to endure.

Her African experience, as well as the book, Hospital by the River, written by Catherine and Reg Hamlin, inspired Ms Jenner to try and make a difference

Dr Hamlin and her husband left Australia in 1959 on short trip to Addis Ababa to establish a midwifery school and 50 years later, have cured over 30,000 patients and opened the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in 1975.

Obstetric fistula is a condition during pregnancy where a badly positioned baby or a small or malformed pelvis causes a long labour, sometimes up to a week, without medical attention.

In many cases the prolonged labour results in a hole in the bladder and sometimes the rectum called a fistula.

The women then become permanently incontinent and their offensive smell causes them to be an outcast from their villages.

They are rejected by their husbands and families and become destitute.

These women are then left to feel a deep sense of shame and failure for not being able to carry and deliver a child.

It is estimated there are 8000 new cases of obstetric fistula each year in Ethiopia and 2 million cases worldwide.

In aid of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital the St John Parish will be holding a afternoon tea to coincide with Dr Hamlin’s 50th year in Ethiopia.

The ‘Light a Candle for Africa’ event will be held at the St John’s Anglican Church Hall in Young tomorrow and will cost $15 per person with the proceeds going to the Hamlin Fistula Relief and Aid Fund.

In attendance at the afternoon tea will be Dr Keith Streatfeild who is married to former local Dr Kay Streatfeild (nee Dorman).

Dr Keith Streatfeild went to Ethiopia to teach post graduate anaesthetics to Ethiopian doctors at a time when there was not even one single anaesthetist in the country and still has regular contact with Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

Ms Jenner said it is wonderful to have someone like Dr Streatfeild come and talk.

“It is a remarkable opportunity to have someone so close to the condition come and talk about the impacts,” Ms Jenner said.

For more information contact Angela Jenner on 6382 5835 or the St John’s Parish office on 6382 1811.