Stories from the Field

With support from USAID, Fistula Care has helped to provide nearly 13,000 fistula repair surgeries. Each woman has her own amazing story. Here are just a few of the women whose lives have been transformed by fistula surgery.

		Tihun and her husband, Aweke, have learned valuable lessons from Tihun’s experience with obstetric fistula.

		Now fully recovered, Yeserash expresses the hardships of obstetric fistula and, along with her father, hopes that people will learn from their story.

		Abebu’s life has been transformed by her fistula repair and she is now able to lead the life that she used to.

		Fausta went to four hospitals over the course of nearly 20 years in search of a successful fistula repair surgery.

		Doreen dreams of having her fistula fully cured so that she can return to her village and finish school.

		Mouima suffered from an untreated obstetric fistula for 28 years before being healed in Guinea.

		It was only when the oldest of her five children was 17 that Airati had surgery to heal her leaking.

		Jane developed fistula after laboring for five hours in a public hospital without receiving any medical attention.

		Halima made an extraordinary journey from fistula survivor to midwife in Darfur, Sudan.

		Edisa lost her parents, grandmother, husband, and baby, enduring searing leg pain and leaking urine until her fistula was completely healed.

		In 2007, the ACQUIRE Project and the Center for Digital Storytelling brought together fistula survivors to record their stories in their own words. Hear Federesi tell her story though song, pictures, and narration, along with many others, in the Digital Stories.

		One of the women who shares her journey in the Digital Stories is Sifa, profiled here in the EngenderHealth 2007 annual report;(PDF, 637KB)