|
Associated Press, July 7, 2004 Two Australians Receive U.N.
Population Awards DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS -- Two Australians received U.N. Population Awards, one for pioneering work in demography including the impact of the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the other for helping Ethiopian women cope with debilitating injuries from prolonged pregnancy. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette presented the individual award to Prof. John Caldwell of the Australian National University and the institutional award to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia founded in 1974 by Australian Dr. Catherine Hamlin and her late husband, Dr. Reginald Hamlin. Caldwell started his career in the 1950s working on the unexpected decline in mortality in third world countries. He then focused on the successful attempt to control fertility to reduce population growth and for the last 16 years on the cultural, social and behavioral context of the African AIDS epidemic. Caldwell said "fertility is now falling everywhere except in rural sub-Saharan Africa." He backed U.N. forecasts that the world's population will stabilize at around 9 billion, "perhaps a generation and a half from now." The United Nations predicts global population will reach 8.9 billion in 2050. Frechette said "no other researcher" had done as much to highlight the social and cultural dimensions of AIDS in Africa than Caldwell. In addition, she said, he has made valuable contributions to the global understanding of family planning programs and the relationship between culture and mortality decline. Over the last 30 years, the Addis Ababa hospital has carried out 25,000 operations to help women suffering from obstetric fistula. The condition, resulting from prolonged labor, leads to the loss of control over the bladder or bowels that surgery can often repair. "Our job is curing these girls and sending them back on dancing feet," said Catherine Hamlin. "We're trying to get them to lead new lives." Frechette said that in some cultures the condition can lead to social ostracism, with women abandoned by their husbands. The Addis Ababa hospital trains young doctors from many countries to treat the condition and offers a package of services to help sufferers reintegrate into the community "with dignity," she said. << Associated Press -- 7/7/04 >>
FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
