UVP Alumna Creates Art Show to Raise Fistula Awareness

One of our summer volunteers from 2008, Archana Jayakumar, has showcased her artistic talents in a gallery show at the University of Buffalo Visual Studies Gallery that highlighted obstetric fistula and other health issues she learned about in rural Uganda. She used this opportunity to educate others about the plight of Ugandan women who suffer a lifelong injury from obstetric fistula. As Archana learned this summer, obstetric fistula is a curable condition that results from obstruction of labor, and may cause a woman to become an outcast from her family and from her community. Unfortunately, obstetric fistula is all too common in Uganda, where travel from the villages presents a financial and geographic barrier to obtaining C-sections when the emergent need arises. The curative surgeries that UVP facilitates allow women to lead normal lives again. Thank you, Archana, for spreading the word about women's health in Uganda, and also about Uganda Village Project.