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As International Women’s Day (March 8) approaches, people around the world are celebrating the achievements of women. Fistula Care is pleased to reflect on the transformation possible for women who live with fistula, thanks to the dedicated professionals who serve them. This quarter, we are pleased to share with you stories from fistula survivors in Sierra Leone, a new community of practice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, advocacy efforts in Nigeria, and more. Thank you for your ongoing interest and support! The Fistula Care Team
Country Program UpdatesThe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Community of PracticeThis past month, the Fistula Care project launched an online message board for the Obstetric Fistula Community of Practice (CoP) in the DRC. The message board is a resource for people working on the prevention, care, and treatment of obstetric fistula. Participants can post comments, announcements, publications, presentations, and other resources to the site. Pre-Repair Services Are Newly Available in Sekota, EthiopiaIn the eastern Amhara Region of Ethiopia, there is a particularly strong need for maternal health services and information about fistula. In November 2010, Fistula Care partnered with the Tefera Hailu Memorial Hospital in Sekota to launch a pre-repair unit for women with fistula. The unit provides the first steps of fistula care, trains medical providers, and raises community awareness about the condition.Advocacy Brings a Mobile Clinic to Bulanyaki, NigeriaIn Sokoto State, Mallam Ibrahim, a committed Nigerian religious leader, met with local and state politicians and prompted them to send a mobile clinic to Bulanyaki, an isolated region where women had great trouble accessing maternal health services. New Lights in Rwandan and Ugandan HospitalsSurgeons in Rwanda and Uganda face multiple challenges while performing fistula surgeries: the lights that illuminate the operating space can be uncomfortably hot or too dim, or the lights can go out altogether in a power outage. Recently, the Fistula Care project, with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), purchased two powerful new light-emitting diode (LED) lamps for the Kanombe Military Hospital in Rwanda and the Kagando Hospital in Uganda.
New Publications and ResourcesFistula Care Publishes French Translations of Tools for Client CareRecently, the Fistula Care Project translated several tools into French:
These tools can also be found in English here.
New on the Web SiteFAQ about Fistula Care
The Fistula Care project web site has a new feature that answers some of the most Frequently Asked Questions about fistula. Topics addressed include service delivery, clinical aspects of fistula care, training, and prevention. Provider Profiles: Professor Azim
Professor Anowar-ul Azim’s mother died in childbirth, prompting her son to study gynecology and obstetric care. Today, he is a leader in safe motherhood and fistula care. As a professor, as a surgeon, and as head of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at different medical colleges in Bangladesh, Professor Azim has had an impact on the lives of countless women. Currently, Professor Azim works at Ad-Din Hospital, which receives some support from USAID via the Fistula Care project to offer fistula treatment free of charge. Stories from the Field: Sierra Leone
Fistula Care’s web site now features three new profiles of women in Sierra Leone:
Deputy Director Evelyn Landry Answers Questions on Research Initiatives
The Fistula Care project is conducting several research initiatives to improve fistula treatment and care. In a Q and A piece on the EngenderHealth web site, Evelyn Landry, Deputy Director of the Fistula Care project, discusses some of the latest Fistula Care research projects and their impact on prevention and patient care.
Fistula Care in the NewsFistula Care Staff and Partners Blog at RH Reality Check
Karen Beattie, Project Director at Fistula Care, published a blog entry about the multiple players involved in fistula prevention and care: medical staff, program managers, writers, advocates, community groups, politicians and donners. Professor Hamid Rushwan, Chief Executive of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Dr. Joseph Ruminjo, the Fistula Care Clinical Director, wrote about a new curriculum for training surgeons in fistula care and the need for standardized surgical training for fistula surgeons. In addition, Moustapha Diallo, Program Manager at the EngenderHealth Guinea office, writes about the community engagement approach to fistula programming. “It’s the Work of the Heart:” Repairing Bodies, Restoring Spirits in CongoEngenderHealth Update (PDF, 1.1 MB) featured a front-page article about Fistula Care’s work in the DRC. The piece describes the stigmatization that women with fistula endure and details the work of two sites in eastern Congo—the HEAL Africa Hospital in Goma and Panzi Hospital in Bukavu.
Meetings and EventsDr. Catherine Hamlin and Mark Bennet Visit EngenderHealthRecently, Dr. Catherine Hamlin, Mark Bennett, and other representatives of the Hamlin Fistula Hospital visited EngenderHealth’s office and made a presentation about their work in Ethiopia. In 1974, Dr. Hamlin and her husband started a hospital in Ethiopia to address obstetric fistula. Today, the Hamlin Fistula Hospital provides treatment, trains service providers in fistula care, and addresses the mental health issues associated with stigma. EngenderHealth’s Maternal Health Task Force blogged about it here.Three Meetings in Dakar Provoke Dialogue on FistulaIn December 2010, the Fistula Care project contributed to discussions about fistula prevention and treatment at two meetings in Dakar, Senegal. Throughout the International Obstetric Fistula Working Group meeting on December 5-6, professionals involved in fistula work discussed fistula prevention, treatment, re-integration and research. At the International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons (ISOFS) meeting December 7–9, members of the Fistula Care team gave presentations about fistula services, research, and training. Following ISOFS, Fistula Care held a two-day consultative meeting about a proposed randomized controlled trial on catheterization following fistula repair surgery.Fistula Care Team Members Present at Global ConferencesKaren Beattie made a presentation called "Fistula: A Worldwide Problem" at the National Council of Women of the United States' 55th Commission on the Status of Women. At the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, senior program associate for monitoring and evaluation Renée Fiorentino presented a poster titled “Evaluation of a Model for Integrating Fistula Care Services in Guinea.” At USAID’s Global Health Mini-University, Karen Levin presented a session on “Why Aren’t We Better Using the Partograph that Saves Women’s Lives?”Rejuvenating Commitment to Obstetric Fistula Prevention in NigeriaIn November 2010, state and federal officials, traditional leaders, service providers, and representatives from nongovernmental organizations met to rejuvenate Nigeria’s National Taskforce on Obstetric Fistula and create a strategy to reduce the incidence of fistula in Nigeria. The Fistula Care project shared two presentations that created discussion about fistula care.
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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.