"Well, being a woman is God's creation"

In my role as the awards program assistant at the Global Health Council I have had the opportunity to review close to 100 media entries for our 2009 Excellence in Media awards. Many of these nominations were first rate, and all deserve recognition for promoting and highlighting global health issues. There are a few that particularly stand-out for me this year, including two different films that deal with women's health issues in Ethiopia: Child Brides by SafeHands for Mothers and A Walk to Beautiful by Engel Entertainment.

I also recently came across the film project, Not Yet Rain by Ipas, which also deals with women's health in Ethiopia and I thought I would highlight these excellent films and the message they are delivering.

Child Brides opens with the marriage ceremony of Wube-Enat who is 10 years old to Abebe, who is 14. Child marriages are illegal in Ethiopia (where the legal age is 18) but according to SafeHands for Mothers, 14% of girls are married by age 10 and 39% by age 14. The majority of child brides will have sex before their first menstruation and often bare children at extremely early ages. Young girls who have children at such an age often suffer from obstetric fistulas (more on that below), which can lead to rejection by her husband and to be ostracized by the community. She also no longer attends school, another crucial element for sustainable development.





In order to get this video out to much of Ethiopia's rural population (77 million Ethiopians live in the rural areas), SafeHands for Mothers partnered with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia. How did they play the DVDs? With portable solar powered DVD player backpacks of course! SafeHands teamed up with Dulas, Ltd., which designed the technology to bring the film directly to the communities.

A Walk to Beautiful deals with the results of complications from child-birth, obstetric fistulas (and, in fact, sexual violence can cause these as well). Single and double obstetric fistulas are what the World Health Organization describes as the result of neglected child birth. These fistula, a small hole between the rectum and/or bladder and vagina is the result of prolonged, obstructed labor. The resulting fistulas cause uncontrollable leakage of urine and fesses and these women are often shunned by their husbands and their communities. Over two million women world wide suffer from fistula and another 100,000 cases are added each year. A Walk to Beautiful follows five women and their journey to re-enter their society.



Finally, Not Yet Rain follows the plight of women and the access to safe abortions in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has one of the most progressive abortion laws in all of Africa but despite this, women still face substantial obstacles in receiving safe abortions. Abortion is never ideal. But neither is rape, death, disease, poverty or back-street abortions. Not Yet Rain aims to inform and educate women and the community on what practices are safe and which can cause irreparable damage in many cases.




One of my favorite aspects about all three of these films is their commitment to bringing women's rights to the forefront of the discussion in development. It is easy to feel cynical that there is just too much to do and so little progress is ever made. However, these films not only give a voice to women but a sample of the faces of the hundreds of physicians, community health workers and volunteers who are working to give women the opportunity to make their own choices in their lives.