22,507

USAID-supported fistula repairs to date

Fistula Care Champion: Dr. Frank Asiimwe
Dr. Frank Asiimwe is a general surgeon and trainer for fistula surgery. His unassuming manner and tenacity of purpose undoubtedly lend confidence to the obstetric fistula patients he treats in Uganda. He has performed more than 500 surgeries throughout his career.

Country Program Update

Fistula Services Provided to 84 Women in Hoima, Uganda
Dense forest, mountainous terrain, and unrest in surrounding regions make access to health care difficult in Hoima, Uganda, and even more so for women with fistula. The Ministry of Health requested Fistula Care to support an outreach repair service for women with fistula at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital. Women responded to radio ads informing them of the availability of services, and five national surgeons and a team of nurses and counselors were ready to provide them with care.

New Publications

Data for Decision Making in Fistula Care: A Supplemental Module for Facilitative Supervision
Facilitative supervision is essential to ensure the provision of quality health services and to continuously look for ways to improve the quality of services. To do their jobs effectively, health care staff need, at a minimum, management support, information and training, supplies, equipment, and appropriate infrastructure. The use of data for decision making is an integral part of Fistula Care’s and EngenderHealth’s approach to quality improvement. Recently, Fistula Care published a set of three modules (PDF, 2.87 MB) to train health care providers about how to gather and analyze data to improve the quality of fistula prevention and repair services. The French version will be forthcoming.

Fistula Care in the News

Edith Mukisa Featured in “Extraordinary Women”
Edith Mukisa, Project Manager for Fistula Care and EngenderHealth’s country representative in Uganda, appears in Daudi Karungi’s new book, Extraordinary: Significant Women of Uganda, which features portraits of and quotations from Ugandan women. In the book, Mukisa stands alongside influential activists, artists, and humanitarians. She explains: “My purpose is to make a difference in someone’s life.”

Meetings and Events

Project Director Karen Beattie speaks at the Wilson Center
On September 27, Fistula Care Project Director Karen Beattie spoke at a forum entitled “Silent Suffering: Maternal Morbidities in Developing Countries.” Beattie explained that fistula is a “clear example of societies’ and health systems’ failures to support women’s needs in childbirth.” The forum was held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, and was co-hosted by the Wilson Center, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF).

Revitalizing the Partograph: Does the Evidence Support a Global Call to Action?
On November 15 and 16, Fistula Care and the Maternal Health Task Force joined to host a meeting on the partograph, a tool that can be used to prevent maternal mortalities and morbidities. In addition to the Fistula Care team, 20 external participants from a variety of professional and academic institutions attended the meeting at the Desmund Tutu Centre in New York City. The MHTF has posted reflections on the meeting on their blog.

Meeting the Needs of Women Living with Fistula that Is Deemed Incurable
In September 2011, 20 medical and surgical specialists, midwives and social scientists came together to discuss standardized approaches of care for women who are living with persistent fistula-related disorder. Fistula Care joined with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to host the meeting; further details are available here.

Commencement of Randomized Controlled Trial on Catheterization after Fistula Surgery
Investigators, research assistants, study coordinators, and staff from the World Health Organization and EngenderHealth gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, from November 15 to November 18 to launch the randomized controlled trial on short-term catheterization following fistula repair surgery. During the meeting, study investigators and research assistants discussed the importance of developing evidence-based practices for fistula treatment, and received training on implementation of the study protocol.

© 2011 EngenderHealth/The Fistula Care Project. Visit the Fistula Care Project’s web site to subscribe or unsubscribe. Photo credits: K. Beattie/EngenderHealth, J. Ruminjo/EngenderHealth, Staff/EngenderHealth.

This newsletter was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under the terms of the cooperative agreement GHS-A-00-07-00021-00. The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the USAID or the U.S. Government.