Training for change

On September 30, 1925, in Washington Dc, the organization “ Medicalmissionsisters” was officially founded by its founder Anna Dengel, a young Australian doctor. The mission of the organization is to gather healthcare professionals who are also nuns from around the world, dedicating their lives to God
and providing their expertise to help women in difficult regions worldwide access quality healthcare
services.
In 1967, the founder of Medicalmissionsisters, Dr. Anna Dengel, visited a rural area in Ethiopia, about175km south of the capital, Addis Ababa. There, she witnessed four man taking 7 hours to carry a pregnant woman in labor down a mountain. Determined to make a difference, she decided to establish a hospital called Attat Hospital in this region. Initially, it was set up in an empty school building with the support of Medicalmissionsisters.
In 1997, Sister Rita Schiffer, a German obstetrician and nun, took over the mission of MMs and assumed the position of medical director at Attat Hospital. This hospital provides healthcare services to approximately 1 million people in the surrounding area. Recognizing the severe shortage of obstetricians and the challenging access to healthcare services, especially for pregnant women, Sister Rita Schiffer made two important decisions to address these issues.
Training non-physician healthcare providers such as midwives and nurses to perform emergency obstetric surgeries (such as cesarean sections, postpartum hemorrhage management, etc.) Establishing a “Maternity Waiting Home” model, where pregnant women from the 37 th week of pregnancy stay and wait for their delivery. These two initiatives have significantly reduces maternal and neonatal mortality rates, as well as other obstetric complications.
The “Maternity Waiting Home” model was later replicated by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. Many low-income countries around the world have also implemented it in their rural areas, where pregnant women are far from healthcare centers.

On October 14, 2022, in Berlin, Germany, Sister Dr. Rita Schiffer, a nun and physician, was honored by on of Germany’s largest non-profit organizations, “ The Ellse Knoner Fresenius Stiftung” , with the “Project of the Year in Collaborative Development in Healthcare” award, worth 100,000 Euros. She praised as the “Angel in the Real World”. Sister Dr. Rita Schiffer is a vivid example of training for change. This is also one of the educational missions of Phan Chau Trinh University, which aims to train individuals for making a difference.