Footsteps to Healing

Our mission
Our Mission is to improve women's health through global partnerships dedicated to building clinical service and health care capacity.
2018 update

The first two formally trained urogynecology fellows in Ethiopia have graduated! These fellows have provided over 300 pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence surgeries during their fellowship training. Three more fellows are in training.
In February, our 14-person health care team provided training in health care quality improvement, inter-professional team communication and leadership, critical care, interventional cardiology, radiology, pediatric and adult pulmonology, urogynecology and nursing.
With our partners, we expanded our capacity-building work to help Botswana University launch an OB-GYN residency training program. Our first OB-GYN resident completed a four-week clinical rotation at Botswana's Scottish Livingstone Hospital.
About the problem

In Ethiopia there is a silent epidemic of women suffering from conditions related to complications of child birth such as obstetric fistula, urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. Read more
What we do
OHSU Footsteps to Healing has partnered with Mekelle University, Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, and the Worldwide Fistula Fund to launch the first urogynecology fellowship training program in Ethiopia and provide ongoing medical, surgical and research training for gynecologists and nurses.
Other areas of collaboration with the College of Health Sciences at Mekelle University include:
- Providing medical and surgical training for residents and faculty in the obstetrics and gynecology department at Ayder teaching hospital.
- Collaborating in clinical research to improve the care of women.
- Building health care capacity at Ayder teaching hospital in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, radiology, internal medicine, hospital management, biomedical engineering and more.
- Providing global health collaboration and training opportunities for OHSU students, residents and fellows. Additionally, providing global health opportunities for faculty and staff across multiple departments at OHSU, Kaiser Permanente NW and other partner institutions in Oregon.
Support Footsteps to Healing
100% of your donation is used for programmatic support.
Join the cause
Our team travels several times a year to Ethiopia to perform pelvic floor surgeries and train Ethiopian physicians, nurses and staff. To support women's health in general, we are expanding our project to build health care capacity in emergency medicine, critical care, hospital management, biomedical engineering, and other fields.
For more information, contact Sladjana Stojanovic
News and events
- I Had to Earn my Way: A story about Dr. Rahel Nardos from The Immigrant Story.
- My patients don't care I'm from a "shithole" country: Dr. Rahel Nardos writes of her recent experiences with racial bias as a doctor and educator in Portland.
- African Film Festival: OPB's Think Out Loud talks to Tracy Francis, film festival coordinator, and Rahel Nardos
- A Scourge for Mothers: Pelvic Organ Prolapse. Written by Rahel Nardos and featured in the New York Times blog On the Ground by Nicolas Kristof
- Rahel Nardos: Recognized Hero Footsteps to Healing book Illuminating the state of women's health care in rural Ethiopia
- Thank you for the recent support from the Storms Family Foundation
- Elena Phoutrides' Blog
- Faces of Ethiopia by photographer and supporter, Joni Kabana