Ensuring hope & Dignity for women & girls

2009-03-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

The inability of majority Nigerians to access and optimize the vast array of opportunities available to them is one of the challenge that further perpetuates and confounds them into poverty. Poverty has resulted in the marginalization and social exclusion of significant groups for one reason or the other. One of such groups are the women and girls who are suffering from Obstetric Fistula.

During the national or international strategies of how to end fistula, Fistula survivors are usually forgotten. For Fistula Foundation these women can make a different especially in the area of community outreach. Fistula survivors are those who had series of Fistula surgery not successful and could not go back to their communities due to the shame that the condition has put them through. Without being cured, women with fistula commonly spend the remaining years of their lives in shame and isolation, literally waiting to die. They usually live in abject poverty, shunned or blamed by society and, unable to earn money, many fall deeper into poverty.

Most of Fistula survivors camped themselves at different locations within the major cities of Northern Nigeria some are living on the streets, under trees, market stalls, under bridges etc, and engaged into different type of trades i.e. begging,(aggressive begging) to and extend that they even pull off their skirts and demand for money for Fistula surgery. food selling, nannies. Some of them jump into survival sex as a result many of them died with HIV/Aids.

Safiya was married at the age of 15 to a man of 46 years and became pregnant the following year. She had labor for three (3) days before she was rushed to the hospital unconscious. Finally it took them five – six (5-6) hours for two (2) cows to pull her with her family’s wooden cart to the nearest hospital, which is more than 10 miles away, unfortunately the hospital had no physicians, because they went on strike. We had to wait another two days, to get emergency caesarean section. The following day she discovered that she could not control her urine, she said, “I was dumbfounded”. As a solution she had to wait for as long as 8 hours before allowing her self a sif of water. She said “people run from me, my husband sent me away, even members of my own family run from me, I was usually shunned by neighbors, nobody talk to me because I was accused of killing my own child. Nobody visit me, I stayed indoor for three years. I was even too ashamed to step out of my hut". She said it is great to be with other girls who understand what I’m going through. We tell each other about our problem and about how things were after we developed fistula. When I saw all Fistula patients on the ward I realized that this is a big problem. Why did no one ever tell us about this before? If I had known about Fistula, may be I could have prevented it, or at lease I would have come here sooner.

Obsteric Fistula in Nigeria: Recent statistics from the U.N. point to fistula as the most underrepresented maternal health problem in Africa with estimates of over one million women & Girls affected in Nigeria alone. The resulting physical and social condition often leads to a lifelong sentence of vulnerability and social ostracism from families or communities and therefore extreme difficulties in leading productive lives.

Obsteric Fistula: The Trauma of Childbirth injury: Obstetric fistula (OF) is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labour without prompt medical intervention, usually a Caesarean section. The woman is left with chronic incontinence and, in most cases, a stillborn baby. The smell of leaking urine or faeces, or both, is constant and humiliating, often driving loved ones away. Those who were left untreated, fistula can lead to chronic medical problems, including ulcerations, kidney disease, and nerve damage in the legs.

Without treatment, fistula often leads to social, physical, emotional and economic decline. Although some women with fistula display amazing courage and resilience, many others succumb to illness and despair. As if the misery of uncontrolled leaking of urine (and sometimes feces) isn't enough, these women and girls are ostracized and disdained by their families and communities.Currently the repairs that took place in Nigeria each year is less than 3,000 a year which means it will take us 200 years to repair the current Fistula cases and yet due to lack of community awareness each year it has being recorded that between 30,000 to 40,000 cases are occuring.

With the support of our Donor, Fistula Foundation Nigeria provides free Surgical and empowerment Support to Fistula patients to ensure hope and dignity for African women and girls who have being suffering and hidden for years due to stigma and uncertainty

Fistula Foundation Nigeria is fully committed in the area of Prevention, Repairs, reintegration Counseling,and follow-ups for Fistula patients and community education on Fistula and safe motherhood.

1. Prevention
BCC
Media engagement
Advocacy to key actors in the community

2. Cureative

Providing Free treatment for the Victims (Repairs)
Organising surgical Mission

3. Counseling

Pre-operative counseling
Post operative counseling
On rehabilitation Counseling
During final discharge

4. Reintegration
We are actively involve in assisting VVF patients, even after successful repairs, continued education, training on income generated activities is essential until they re-gain their psychological fitness as well as socio economic status.

Please contact us via email for more information.

fistula.nigeria@yahoo.com