Helen Wall became involved with the Mariam Seba Sanitary Products Factory when she and Dr. Lewis Wall, her husband, both lived in Mekelle in northern Ethiopia for nearly eight months in 2014. Helen is an avid seamstress, and has won several national contests in wearable art. She used this talent to teach sewing to Ethiopian women and verify the high quality of Mariam Seba’s reusable sanitary pad. She is passionate about the work of Dignity Period.

 

Helen and Lewis have traveled extensively throughout Africa. After Lewis graduated from medical school, they spent three months in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they worked as volunteers in a mission hospital. During that stay Helen used her sewing skills to produce hospital curtains, bed sheets, surgical caps and gowns . . . anything that was needed. In addition, Helen has accompanied and supported Lewis in his travels to Niger, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda.

 

Born in northern England, Helen graduated from Lanchester Polytechnic and began working as a research technician in plant biochemistry, first at University College, London, and then at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden, the world’s oldest, continuously operated agricultural research center. After taking an opportunity to study in the U.S., she received her master’s degree in botany from the University of Kansas, where she met her future husband, Dr. Lewis Wall. They were married in England and returned to the United States, where Lewis was entering medical school.

 

Lewis and Helen, when not traveling the world, reside in St. Louis, Missouri where Lewis practices medicine and teaches at Washington University. They are very active in their community and have two boys, Jimmy and Thom, both of whom are living on the east coast.