The founding of TERREWODE was initially an idea conceived by Alice Emasu, when she was a 16-year-old secondary school student. She was motivated by the shock of learning about the horror of two of the six of her former girl friends who suffered Obstetric Fistula; and four of whom perished from preventable childbirth complications. At the time, maternal mortality in Uganda was at 505/100,000 live births and it had stagnated for over ten years. This compelled Emasu to join the media industry to start creating awareness about Obstetric Fistula and advocate for interventions to eliminate it. Realizing that Obstetric Fistula was a national challenge, it required concerted efforts by all stakeholders--with the women and girls at the forefront--thus the idea of establishing The Association for Rehabilitation and Re-orientation of Women for Development, known as TERREWODE, in 2001.