Mackenzie Scott donates $15 million to the Fistula Foundation to support women

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A world leader in obstetrics and fistula treatment, the Fistula Foundation has received a $15 million gift from American philanthropist and author Mackenzie Scott.

Scott’s gift is the largest single donation in the organization’s history and will fuel its five-year, $110 million program. Strategic plan to provide 80,000 life-changing surgeries to women in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who have been left incontinent during childbirth.

The announcement comes on the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, a United Nations-sponsored event that takes place every year on May 23.

“This donation is an unprecedented milestone for our team and for our dedicated partners who work every day to heal women with devastating birth injuries,” said Kate Grant, Executive Director of the Fistula Foundation.

“Our hearts burst with gratitude for Mrs. Scott’s gift. Thanks to her generosity, we have a vital advance in our plan to end, within a generation, the suffering caused by fistula.”

Obstetric fistula is a birth injury that leaves a woman incontinent and often isolated from family and community. Although it is a condition treated surgically with a high success rate in the West, many impoverished women around the world are unaware that help is available or cannot afford it.

There are at least one million women, most of whom live in poor rural areas of Africa and Asia, who suffer from this condition.

Under the new strategic plan, the Fistula Foundation is accelerating its In it to finish it project to eradicate the suffering caused by fistula in all countries where the condition still persists.

The core of this plan is to expand the Fistula Foundation Treatment Network (FFTN) model to five new countries to build care networks with the goal of connecting all women with timely, high-quality treatment. It will also add more than 40 surgical and outreach organizations to its global network of Fistula Foundation Partners.

Most of Scott’s philanthropy recipients have been organizations serving US populations, but the Fistula Foundation is among a relatively small number of recipients doing work focused entirely on developing countries. .

The Foundation says it applauds Scott’s donation for coming unrestricted after a due diligence process by his advisors.

“Ms. Scott is pioneering a revolution in philanthropy,” Grant said. “By providing her donation with no bureaucratic strings attached, she has placed her trust in us. We will not leave her, or the women we are in the business of helping. We’re in this to finish it and make sure no woman is left behind.”