ABOUT
THE PROJECT

MISSION & HISTORY.

The Alon Project addresses one of the most serious issues affecting women in the 21st Century, an obstetric fistula which is a preventable birth complication affecting the world’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged women.

It causes incontinence of the bladder or bowel along with devastating social isolation, loss of employment, infection and infertility. This injury is both entirely preventable and treatable with the appropriate resources and training for healthcare staff.

We work in Uganda, which has some of the highest rates of fistulas worldwide. The Alon Project cures these women through surgery which enables them to return to society.

We focus on up-skilling local doctors and nurses to successfully treat these women and assist them to recover.

The mission of the Alon Project is:

Treatment for women suffering from an obstetric fistula through life-changing surgery
Reintegration into society
Prevention through improving maternal child health
Capacity building and sustainability through training local health professionals
Empowerment and education of local women

Our last mission involved treating 58 women suffering from incontinence from birth injuries across two rural Uganda towns.

We are looking to finance our next medical mission and expand on our previous efforts by running a neonatal resuscitation course.

PROJECT
DESCRIPTION.

We go to Uganda and with a team of local doctors and nurses run week-long surgical missions in a rural hospital. Women suffering from incontinence from birth injuries are transported to the hospital. After individual consults, we understand the needs of each woman and offer surgical management for those who need it. We perform the surgeries, to repair the birth injury, giving these women back control over their bowel and bladder function. Women who have fistula stay in the hospital for two weeks until we are able to remove their urinary catheter. Cured from their incontinence, they are transported back to their community and helped to reintegrate back into society.

We also help prevent obstetric fistula and have a strong focus on capacity building, providing hands-on teaching to local healthcare providers on how to prevent, diagnose and treat obstetric fistula and how to best care for these women.

The cost to change these women’s lives is only $500 AUD. This covers their transport to the hospital, all hospital related costs including extra local staff, medications and equipment and reintegration back into society. This is necessary as these women can’t even afford the bus to get to hospital.

In November 2024 we will be running a neonatal CPR course to decrease preventable neonatal deaths. We will also be training local health providers on how to teach others, empowering them to improve local practice and to create a sustainable solution with compounding positive impact.

Learn more about the missions and our impact in this video,

“Let’s talk about labour, leakages and lives lost” by Dr Devorah Heymann at TEDxMaldon.

Dr Heymann is a Urogynaecology Fellow in Melbourne and the Founder/CEO of The Alon Project. She is a passionate advocate for every woman’s right to a safe birth and dignified life and strives for a future where no woman is left behind in silence or suffering.