Meet Almaz, a Hamlin Patient Identification Officer
September 10, 2026
For Almaz Teamir, a Patient Identification Officer with Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, finding women who might otherwise go without treatment is what motivates her every day. Your support helps make her work possible.
Based at Hamlin’s Mekele Fistula Hospital, Patient Identification Officers like Almaz travel from village to village, speaking with community leaders, families and women, often going door-to-door to find women living with obstetric fistula and connect them with life-changing care.
Almaz also visits patients after treatment to check on their progress and see whether they need any further support.
Reaching remote and rural communities
These journeys can mean travelling long distances along dusty roads — or continuing on foot where there are no roads at all.
By supporting Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, you can help Almaz and her colleagues reach women who may have been waiting years for treatment and offer them a pathway to care.
Almaz's daily motivation
By connecting with communities, Almaz can identify women in need of treatment for historic childbirth injuries. Few of the women she finds are aware that their condition can be cured.
For Almaz, the rewards of seeing women restored to health makes every kilometre worthwhile.
“When you see the smiles, the happiness ... this is what motivates me.”
Almaz and her colleagues are carrying Catherine’s vision forward — one woman, one community, one journey at a time.
A plan to end fistula in Ethiopia
Around 22,000 women in Ethiopia are living with obstetric fistula, with an additional 1,000 cases occurring every year. It is estimated that it could take more than five decades to find and treat every case.
Learn more about our ambitious national program to accelerate the rate of change for the women of Ethiopia.
Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Elders past, present and emerging throughout Australia and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land and waterways on which our Australian office is situated. We acknowledge the many ethnic groups in Ethiopia and their ancestral and cultural connection to the land where our work is undertaken.