Alice Emasu, is a Washington University graduate (MSW, Brown School) who has been a tireless champion for women’s Sexual Reproductive rights in Uganda. She has strategically provided platforms nationally and internationally to share experiences of vulnerable women especially those affected by Obstetric Fistula and other child birth injuries in an inspiring and compelling manner through the grass-roots women’s empowerment organization in northeast Uganda called TERREWODE.
She started the NGO over a decade ago while still a journalist (graduate of Mass Communication). Its purpose is to unlock barriers and transform the conventional Health care system in Uganda to realization of Human Rights; Sexual Reproductive Health Rights of women. She has dedicated her work life to and engaged with the problem of maternal mortality and maternal morbidity as her “wedge” issue.
She has been a national champion and has helped develop other women leaders and community members as ambassadors for the care of women with obstetric fistula, a devastating complication of prolonged obstructed labor. She is a strong advocate for women’s rights and I strongly believe every woman with an obstetric fistula has the right to be treated with compassion, dignity, and respect, irrespective of her socioeconomic status.
Obstetric Fistula formed the basis of her MSW thesis over 10 years ago; while establishment of a dedicated women’s hospital in Soroti for treatment, management of fistula and maternal motilities was the focus of her recent MBA degree at Uganda Martyr’s University.
Her vision was always to try to build a specialist women’s hospital for obstetric fistula repair and to expand it into a full maternal health providing holistic quality care to mothers. This hospital is today another platform upon which other great things can be built. It presents many opportunities.