'Dr Catherine Hamlin has been described as a living saint and is truly a great Australian. Since 1959 she has lived and worked in Ethiopia, helping the victims of fistulas - devastating injuries caused by obstructed labour in childbirth, and which condemn sufferers to a lifetime of incapacity and social exclusion. The surgery she pioneered has helped tens of thousands of afflicted women to return to normal life after being shunned for years by their families and communities. The hospitals she has set up in her adopted country now function as teaching centres for obstetricians and surgeons from many developing nations.' (Publication summary)
