A Doctor in Africa

Including a preface by HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne. The Australian doctor saving the lives and dignity of thousands of women in Africa, one surgery at a time. From Ethiopia to Sierra Leone, Tanzania to Togo, Dr Andrew Browning has been helping women affected by obstetric fistulas - a debilitating condition resulting from obstructed childbirth - for nearly two decades. Andrew began his African career in the 1990s working with the late Dr Catherine Hamlin and since then has started the Barbara May Foundation, which has built hospitals, trained staff and established programs to heal fistulas and also prevent them from occurring around Africa in the world's most disadvantaged women. Two million African women are estimated to be suffering with obstetric fistulas. They are often made outcasts in their own community, unable to leave their homes and left with little prospect of a happy, fulfilling life. Andrew's operations, and the spread of fistula-skilled surgeons he is training across the continent, don't just relieve the emotional and physical pain of the women affected, but give them hope and a future. A Doctor in Africa is the uplifting story of Andrew's life, from the challenges faced along the way to the stories of the women whose lives he has forever changed. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Barbara May Foundation. About the Author Dr Andrew Browning AM is an Australian-trained obstetrician, gynaecologist and senior fistula surgeon. In 2001, he joined Dr Catherine Hamlin in her first fistula hospital in Ethiopia and five years later took charge of the first regional Hamlin Fistula hospital. In 2009 he started his own charity, the Barbara May Foundation, to take the work that the Hamlins had started out of Ethiopia to the rest of Africa, and focus more on fistula prevention. Today, Andrew divides his time between Australia and Africa. He was named as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to improving maternal health care for women in poverty.