A few years back during my
research studies in the village of Nabinyonyi in eastern Uganda, I made friends
with one of my respondents, a sweet 16-year-old. Magarita had married at nine
years old, gotten pregnant at 12, and developed an obstetric fistula after
prolonged labour and her baby’s death. She was one of ten fistula patients at
the medical centre where I spent a week to carry out research activities. At
16, Magarita was recovering from her fourth fistula surgery, and she lived in
hope that she would heal. This was years before I started working with UVP,
where I now hear stories of so many women and young girls with cases similar to
that of Magarita. I am glad that we are reaching out to this kind of under-privileged
population.
Fistula is a condition that
affects hundreds of thousands of women, sadly 90% of them in Africa. Their stories,
like that of Magarita, are ones that hardly get told. The tragedy of a fistula
patient begins when she goes into labour. Try as she might, the baby won’t
budge. Hours pass, days even, and her suffering continues. She is in a remote
village with no midwife or access to medical attention. Added to her physical
pain and suffering is the mental anguish of a lack of information about her
situation. Most often in these situations, the baby dies, adding to her
heartbreak. Then, her second tragedy begins. She can’t understand why she is
leaking urine or faeces.
Her husband sends her home to her
parents because of her condition. In some cases, her smell becomes so
unbearable, even her parents put her out. She’s confined to a hut far from the
house, sometimes having access to others only when food is passed to her.
Margarita was married
exceptionally young, but child marriage is a problem in Uganda. One of the
populations most vulnerable to fistulas are young brides. The impact of child
marriage is devastating: these girls are robbed of their childhood, denied
their rights to health, education, and security, and are trapped in the vicious
cycle of poverty.
I am inspired to share this
because I can now go beyond conducting research about such saddening incidences
and instead be part of an organisation (UVP) that is reaching out to people suffering
such conditions. The amazing UVP staff, especially Loy, go beyond bringing women
for fistula repair surgery. I believe that simply repairing the fistula
injuries and returning women to the same conditions that made them ill in the
first place would be self-defeating. Loy has helped women with literacy while
they are healing from their surgeries, and reminds the women of their rights.
I believe that the outreach activities
are the first step in the campaign to end fistula. It may take many decades
before we finally eradicate fistulas in Uganda or broadly in Africa. But we
need to start somewhere and, hopefully, this great opportunity to be part of
UVP, whose central passion is improving access to better health services, will
pave the way.
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