Nearly a year after Pete and I started our journey to help 100 women with 2 million steps, a group of Canadian students have taken us more than 30% past our goal. And they did it with coffee.

“When our teacher first told our class about obstetric fistula and what the women have to go through just to survive I was both horrified and amazed,” said Allison Kendall, “This made me want to raise as many funds as we could for these women.”

With donated space from Springbank Park for All Seasons and coffee from Van Houtte, 15 students from Springbank Community High School put on an entertaining musical coffeehouse event that raised more than $8.400!

Students were introduced to the health issue after a chance meeting their teacher, Jill Milner had with me and Pete in Villamayor de Monjardin. Back in July, we had dinner with Jill and her friends who were volunteering at an albergue in the pretty hillside town. The rand evening of conversation and discussion would stay in our minds as one of our favorites. Jill and I stayed in touch and she told me she wanted to do something to help women with fistula. When she told her students about the condition, the group of changemakers decided to make something happen.

The idea behind the event was to bring together family and friends to celebrate how Africa has touched their lives. Students shared travel stories from their recent trip to Botswana with Habitat for Humanity. Musical guests Abby Bohna and the Youth Singers performed and Samantha Knight and Reghan Walsh gave a presentation about obstetric fistula.

While admission to the event was free, guests were invited to donate what they could. The students also held a raffle of items generously donated by local companies. All of the funds raised that evening were matched by an anonymous donor from the community of Springbank.

Besides changing the lives of women in Africa, the students also saw their worlds expand. Cole Mercuur said, “The entire event really opened my eyes to the conditions of life in developing nations around the world.”

The event opened my eyes to the power of a motivated group of young people. In one night, these students raised more money than any other OperationOF event. It just shows you what can happen when a small group of inspired people focus their energy on something.

Welcome to 2 Million Steps.  Someone (maybe one of us) probably sent you here to have a look. Thanks for stopping by.

Did you know that every 2 seconds, a woman either dies or is seriously injured while giving birth. The worst of these preventable injuries is obstetric fistula (OF), a condition that turns women into pariahs by making them permanently incontinent. There are 2 million women suffering with this condition despite a $200 surgery that is 90% effective.

In July 2010, Pete and I set out on a 481 mile along the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We wanted to take 2 million steps – one for each woman with OF – and raise $20,000 to support corrective treatment for 100 of these women. Well, five months and 2,072,639 steps, we have nearly achieved our goal.

Check out the Pics –  Check out our Trip Diary

We need your help to fund the last 12 surgeries. 12 mothers who have lost their lives have the chance to get them back if we act.  $200 saves a life, but anything you can spare will help. Spreading the word is free – please posting on Twitter or Facebook!  Thanks for your help!!

Pete and I arrived in Santiago on August 29, 2010, and while we managed to make the physical portion of our journey, we fell well short on the fundraising side of things. But the only way to get somewhere is to keep moving in that direction and we committed to keep trying to raise enough money to support surgery for 100 women.

We have had some amazing breaks in 2011. We started the month with $860 in individual donations from a handful of very generous individuals who wanted to change the lives of at least 4 more mothers in need (like the woman pictured below).

This burst of good luck exploded when an anonymous donor gave us $5,000! Thank you! Whoever you are, you are definitely amazing!! Besides funding surgery for 25 women, this hugely generous gift brings us VERY close to our goal. We have now raised $17,596, just $4 shy of enough for 88 surgeries. (But we are gonna call it 88 cause someone will surely click here to give $4 now.)

We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel – only $2,400 left to hit our goal. If you have a company match, $100 can completely transform a life. Imagine the good karma that being such a hero will bring you in 2011.

On the journey to raise enough money to help 100 women, every little step counts. But we recently benefited from one giant leap forward in the form of corporate sponsorship from ADC Telecom.

As part of a special program to support organizations where ADC executives volunteer, OperationOF received a $5,000 donation. This brings our fundraising total to $11,736 – enough to treat 58 women!

Who is this volunteer? Well, it’s my friend Bill Heussler, who also happens to be Pete’s dad.

Bill has been a good friend and advisor for several years, but over the last six months he has spent a great deal of time helping OperationOF. Bill has vast experience in international sales and developing new markets in the private-sector. He has shared that knowledge and helped us expand our development strategy and implement a tactical plan to grow our donor base.

Turns out that Bill has spent enough time volunteering in this capacity to qualify for this generous program from the ADC Foundation. So in addition to the benefit of his free consulting, OperationOF and the women we serve will now benefit from a significant investment in our effort to change lives.

While it is amazing that 25 more women will now know a better tomorrow, we are still 42 ladies short of the goal. Can you help us close the gap today?

We waltzed into Santiago nearly a month ago, but we still haven’t arrived at our destination. Pete is back in the Minnesota talking to reporters and I went all the way to New Delhi, India, and used my stage time as a Young Champion of Maternal Health to tell the world that “a real man is a mama’s boy.”

We’re still on a mission and won’t stop until we raise enough money for 67 more surgeries.

That’s 67 more mothers like Isabella, the very first woman whose surgery OperationOF funded with $390 of cash right out of my pocket back in 2008.  My notes from 2008:

Today was the day for Isabella to get her life back.  Her surgery was over almost before it had even started. It took only 45 minutes to close Isabella’s fistula. 45 minutes – that’s literally a morning run on a Tuesday before work. 10 years Isabella had suffered. 10 years she waited to get her dignity back and it only took 45 minutes to do it.

I wish I could adequately describe Isabella’s joy, but words fall short of such magnificence.  I remember her being indescribably sad before her surgery and unbelievably happy after.  Witnessing that dramatic transformation firsthand infected me with an unshakable commitment to the cause and I’ve never looked back.

Like Isabella, many women still need help.  But now, instead of $390, we have a negotiated price of $200 per surgery.  I know the economy is terrible and cash is tight all around, but a donation to this effort is money incredibly well spent.  Change a life today.

Well, we finally have all the pictures up on flickr. We took 2,665 pictures that we edited down to a 841 image slide show that you can slide through below or click to get to flickr.

We also have a complete map of our camino and have broken down the segments we blogged into bite-sized chunks in case you are new to the blog or missed some segment.

• Days 1-5
• Days 6-10
• Days 11-16
• Days 17-23
• Days 24-27

We appreciate all the continued interest and support.  Please keep the donations coming – we are still short of our goal to help save 100 women!!

My heart started pounding when I saw it. Like mountains in the dark, the towering steeples of the cathedral in Santiago whispered their presence as we raced down the last few meters of the Camino that ran behind the church. We skipped down the steps of the dark corridor and burst into the sea of orange floodlight that painted the empty plaza in front of the cathedral. A mere 27 days and 2,072,639 steps and these two mama’s boys had made it to Santiago.

We stood there in the middle of the plaza, speechless and shell shocked with pride until Bryan (our head cheerleader and unofficial alternate) put his hand out with his palms down and said, “Let’s do a 1-2-3 Camino.” Pete and I put our hands on the pile and on the count of three, we all shouted “Camino!” at the top of our lungs announcing our arrival like a victorious sports team.

As our Camino echoed off the plaza walls, I felt exhilarated and overwhelmed. I needed to get off my feet. Laying on the cold stone with my bag as a pillow, I stared up and the orange cathedral glowing in front of a dark blue sky and thought about all the beauty and struggle, the majesty and humanity we experienced in our two million steps. I thought about how we had arrived in one sense, but still had more road ahead in another – 27 women is well short of the 100 we hope to help.

Eating up thoughts, oranges and a bar of chocolate, we enjoyed the sunrise and the peace of the empty square. Urgency replaced our evaporating triumph when we thought about forming lines and disappearing hotel rooms. We felt relived when the shortness of the line for completion certificates got us about 20 places from the front. We dropped our bags in line and went to grab breakfast. When we returned, the line had moved around the other side of the building and our new spot in line was about 300 places from the front. To add insult to injury and in a strange twist of fistula irony, our place in a nonmoving line had previously served as an impromptu urban toilet and we could not escape the smell of urine. Imagine our joy when the line finally started moving. Your donation can help “make the line move” for a woman in need.

We inched through the massive line past a pile of a thousand walking sticks that everyone artfully discarded. It took a while to get there, but once we got to the desk, the certificates came quickly. We presented our credentials and confirmed that we did indeed walk every step. Then they wrote our names in Latin, handed us the paper and called the next person. Since the line police had shuffled us to different areas, we had a reunion right near the buildings exit where we showed off our Latin names and took some photos. The Camino officially and quietly ended in this little crowded hallway.

While the Camino is over, the journey has just begun. We still have 73 ladies who need money for surgery and Pete and I will not stop until we raise enough money to see that all of them get the treatment that every person deserves.

We could have made Santiago today. No question. But emotion made us stop an hour from the church in the huge barracks looking albergue of Monte del Gozo. Built in the 90’s to house pilgrims, the 2000 plus bed hostel is a very popular place to stop before makng a short walk into Santiago the next day. After some debate, we decided we would pull up short and take some time to reflect about the trip and reconnect with all the pilgrims we have walked with for the past month. We also thought it might be cool to see the sunrise over the cathedral the next morning.

Filled with both excitement and sadness that the trip would soon end, we rose early and were on our way. Throughout the trip, we have made jokes or teased one another instead of dwelling on heavy feelings. Today was no different. We dealt with our conflicted emotions by making fun of each other, trading insults and laughing hard as the sun rose behind us.

We came across a sign pointing the way to Santiago. I threw my hat on it and shot a couple photos, as has become customary when seeing one of these way marking signs. Its funny how tradtions form. Seth takes pictures of every new shell he sees. He started this in St. Jean and we call it Shells by Seth.

I don’t know how I would be able to get through the Camino if it weren’t so well marked. Shells and arrows everywhere. I mean, I was a boy scout (although not a very good one). I didn’t even pass my orienteering merit badge, and that was with a compass. I find it amazing and inspiring that some of the fistula women I have talked to have walked hundreds of miles to the nearest hospital, all in flip-flops, without maps or signs pointing their way through what is many times dangerous territory.

Towards the end of our journey, we began to walk along the road. We were at the top a hill looking down into a valley. At the bottom of the valley we could see Santiago. Looking down at our final destination, the one we had been chasing for so long was an extremely surreal experience.

A huge stone sign seemed to mark the occasion. Complete with all the pilgrim symbols (a shell and a walking stick with gourd attached) and highlighted by a big banner that said SANTIAGO in red letters, it seemed like a celebration of how close we were to the end. Being so near our goal made me think about the women with fistula who have traveled great distances in search of treatment they can’t afford. I wondered how it must feel to be on the doorstep of the hospital and so close to having a new life, but not being able to afford your surgery. Devastating.

We have taken all these steps to keep this from happening, but we need you.   Help a woman today by funding a surgery. Please donate now.

Walking in the dark is an act of faith. The headlamp pointed at the ground does not give any visual depth, so while you will see and step over a big stone, you often step into unseen dips in the trail. When that happens, there is a split second of a falling sensation that reminds you just how little control you have. It’s frightening and exhilarating at the same time.

Relief swept over me when the sun finally showed up. On our little jaunt down the walking version of Space Mountain, we had lamps and knew a sunrise would show up any minute. In her walk through the darkest night, a woman with fistula has neither the use of a flashlight nor the certainty of imminent sunrise. Yet she keeps walking – she keeps living. Of all the attributes of these women that move me, it is their steadfast determination to keep going that makes me want to give everything to help. The strength – the faith in life – moves me deeply.

I stopped talking while I thought about the women with fistula. Pete and Bryan (our unofficial alternate who you may have seen in the pics) interpreted my silence as sadness. To cheer me up, they pointed out a smiling electrical junction box that someone said looked like WALL-E. This ignited a fierce debate on the merits of WALL-E as a movie that carried on sporadically throughout the day. From then on, every electrical box looked like a face to us.

The droves of people have disappeared for some unknown reason. We must have somehow gotten out of phase with the tour buses of new pilgrims. For the last several days we have tripped over people in a race to the albergue, but today it was quiet and picturesque. Exactly what I wanted. It felt like the desolation of the early days, which made me nostalgic. I spent the second half of an already emotional day reflecting on this incredible experience. By the time we got to Arzua, I needed a break from thought.

We ate lunch in a cool little restaurant that decorated its walls with the handprint messages of a thousand pilgrims. Different colored handprints covered every surface but the floor with messages of hope and inspiration in every language. Arzua is famous for a soft white cheese and we enjoyed that and the anchovy filled olives that Pete and I obsess over the entire day.

We completed our twenty-fifth day of hiking today and the end is so near. Santiago is only 35.5 kilometers away. That means only a day or two left. But despite our progress on the trail, we have only raised enough money to help 27 ladies – far short of our goal of helping 100 women.

Can you give us a hand? $200 can bring the sunrise for a woman walking in the dark. Every little bit counts.

Darkness covered everything like a heavy blanket, but the blanket had a hole that went all the way to the moon. She refused to have her light shrouded by the clouds. The single illuminated patch of clouds reminded me of the strength of the human spirit. The women I have met with fistula find ways to stay hopeful despite being stuck in such a terrible circumstance. They have the strongest spirits that shine brightly even in the darkness of their situations.

Besides it being dark, I couldn’t tell you much about the morning because we moved so quickly. I could only see about five feet in front of me, which is how far our headlamps reach. The damp air and speed we were walking made breathing feel as though I were a bull dog who had just ran right into a sinus infection. Luckily when the sun started to peak above the tree line, the moisture in the air began to burn off. As the sun poked its rays through the clouds that had held everything in darkness, we were greeted by a beautiful landscape

Further down the path, we came across some blackberries growing naturally along the side of the Camino. After picking through a couple patches and eating a few sour ones, we found the mother load of all berries. Seth went nuts. He looked like a one of the squirrels back home in Minnesota searching through all the acorns to find just the right ones. We took off after he had finished grabbing a handful to eat on the walk.

All along the Galician side of the Camino we have seen a ton of cow droppings dotting the road. The strange thing is that we never see any cows on the road. That is until today. One particularly curious cow came up to me as I was taking a picture of her. Slowly coaxing her closer and closer with my hand outstretched, she leant over the fence and gave our camera a smooch.

After Brunhilde (the cow) and our camera finished their little love affair, we hurried to Palas de Rei as fast as we could to get in line for the albergue (pilgrim hostel). It’s unfortunate that the last part of this trip has become a race to get a bed. People do whatever they can to ensure they get a bed including sending their packs, reserving ahead – some reserving several places in many cities – and even taking means of transportation other than their own two feet. We don’t do that. No reservations for us. Women with fistula don’t get reservations. Even if they could afford a surgery, they wait forever to save enough money to afford it.

Make a reservation today. Give a mother her life back. A surgery is only $200, and it’s the break in the clouds she needs.