New Client, Health & Development International, Engages ELISE in Women’s Health Event at Carter Center

At ELISE, we make it our business to stay on top of what is happening in the world. Whether it is local Philadelphia news or a larger, global issue, we feel it is important to be aware and engaged. Perhaps because we are currently an all female outfit, we are particularly attuned to issues that affect the lives of women, worldwide.

For this reason among others, we are very pleased to be collaborating on an event with Health & Development International (HDI) at The Carter Center.

HDI will host its second global meeting on the prevention of obstetric fistula, a problem that plagues millions of women in developing countries. The event is taking place on March 9 & 10 at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, The Carter Center is committed to advancing human rights and creating a world in which every man, woman and child has the opportunity to live peacefully and enjoy good health.

HDI’s mission is to advance global public health and human dignity, particularly the health and socio-economic situation of under-served populations, which are especially vulnerable to and constrained by preventable, degrading disease.

In particular, HDI is devoted to the prevention of obstetric fistula, a humiliating, yet easily preventable complication of childbirth, that now exists almost only in the poorest developing countries.  HDI started the world’s first community-based rapid obstetric fistula prevention program in Bankilare, Niger. As a result, new obstetric fistula cases are down markedly in the project area, and deaths from obstructed labor are down 100 percent.  The once-silenced and shamed condition is now being addressed on the global stage. In his columns, as well as his new book, Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof spotlights the unnecessary suffering of these women and advocates for initiatives to fund medical facilities and provide care so these women may be cured.

ELISE is honored to support the efforts of organizations that address such critical needs as the right to good health—needs that go un-met for far too many. Thanks to organizations such as HDI and other like-minded groups wrestling with how best to scale up their efforts, this is changing.