Women with fistulas often experience terrible pain. They can develop long-term infections. Their husbands and communities may reject them because they develop health problems or cannot have more children.
Young mothers and poor women are especially at risk. The World Health Organization estimates that two to three million women and girls in developing countries are living with fistulas.
In one African country, Malawi, the ministry of health is partnering with the United Nations to help women with fistulas get medical care.
Gift Malunga is the acting country director for the United Nations Population Fund in Malawi. She says the UN plans to organize “fistula camps” two times a year in public hospitals. There, women with the condition will be treated.
She says the UN is also teaching women how to prevent and treat the condition.
“We started with very few patients at the beginning, because people were not aware and there were myths surrounding fistula, that it is a curse, it’s not a medical condition. And then as we also engaged the media, that they assisted us to create awareness in the communities, and then we saw more and more patients now coming to our camps to an extent that even last time we could not treat all of them in the camp.”
Gift Malunga says women leave the camp physically healed. They also leave with food, soap, and ideas about how to act if their communities reject them. She says the camps have already helped more than 600 women.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25