'A Walk to Beautiful' Screening at Fanwood Library

The Fanwood Memorial Library is pleased to present a very special screening of an important and compelling documentary feature, "A Walk To Beautiful."

At its premiere at the 50th Annual San Francisco Film Festival in 2007 it won the Audience Choice award and has continued to garner recognition including a 2009 News EMMY Award for Long Form Informational programming, the International Documentary Association's (IDA) Best Documentary award in 2007 (beating Oscar nominees Sicko and Taxi to the Dark Side), and many others.

This compelling and beautiful film will be shown on Wednesday, February 10 at 7:00 pm at the Fanwood Memorial Library. Admission is Free.

Director Mary Olive Smith, who also co-produced and shot much of the footage in Ethiopia, will be on hand to answer questions about the topic of fistula, the making of this film and more. The film is produced by New York based Engle Entertainment and more information on the film and fistula is available at www.walktobeautiful.com.

"Even death would be better than this. This is not life," says 25-year old Ayehu. She lives in a ragged lean-to behind her mother's house, thrown out by her husband after a weeklong labor left her with a stillborn child and an obstetric fistula, a condition that makes her incontinent. Shunned by neighbors, unable to work or even live indoors because of her condition, Ayehu is one of thousands of women in rural Ethiopia who suffer from obstetric fistula. It's a tragically common consequence of obstructed childbirth in developing where doctors are scarce and obstetric care is practically nonexistent. Girls are undernourished and overworked, married off before puberty. Pregnant as young as 12 or 13, their bodies are unable to handle the trauma of childbirth. This condition, once quite common all over the globe and still prevalent in many third world countries, has been completely eradicated in the US and other first world countries for more than one hundred years.

The title of this compassionate documentary refers to the journey Ayehu and many young women make on foot and by bus from their remote villages to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to have corrective surgery. Australian husband and wife doctors Reginald and Catherine Hamlin opened the hospital in 1974 to treat fistula patients free of charge. Now widowed and elderly, the remarkable Dr. Catherine Hamlin continues to oversee the work of the hospital's dedicated staff.

Walk with these five women from the despair of their conditions to hope, confidence and transformation as they undergo treatment and take control of their lives. DON'T MISS a rare opportunity to see this moving and inspiring tale.

For more information contact the Fanwood Memorial Library at 908.322.6400 or visit online at www.fanwoodlibrary.org.