Heartbreaking story on Nova last night.

Something I had never heard of.Young girls in Ethiopia at the age of 6 begin to carry large containers of water for several miles.
Their bodies do not grow normally caused by the heavy weight.
They are forced into marriage at the age of 9 or 10.
When they attempt to birth their first child the baby is usually still born caused by the birth canal being to small.
After sometimes 10 days labor the baby is removed piece by piece.

They have a hospital in Addis Ababa that was specifically built to heal the physical damage (Tears in the bladder and rectal walls that cause leakage) done to these young girls.
Most of them can be healed.
They also told of being kicked out by their husbands and ostracized from their familes.
In the hospitals there some wonderful compassionate nurses and doctors.
Nova should repeat this Sunday.

What you describe is just one of the tragic stories associated with this beautiful country populated by beautiful people.

At the time - Ethiopia was the 2nd poorest country in the world. Not sure where it is now - except still poor and wracked by war and famine.

I saw what sounds to have been the same program several months ago. I do not recall that it was on Nova but it may have been. It was a disturbing program.

was 17... looked 12... and was talking about killing herself.

Not being racist, but any system that does that to little girls is fucked.

Apparently, there are many thousands of those girls scattered all over the country.

How expensive would it be for a large, powerful nation to hire and send teams of surgeons all over that country and cure those girls? Certainly not possible while we spend about $12 B a month killing Iraqis.

I saw it also. Heartbreaking. Highly recommend this documentary. It was on NOVA on PBS last night. I think they sometimes repeat these films.

http://www.walktobeautiful.com/