Fistula – Marilyn R. Gardner

Today’s post is written by Brooke Sulahian. Brooke and I have never met, but every time I receive an email from her I stop and read it. Because Brooke has a passion and a mission: to see women who are suffering with fistula healed and whole. She began an organization called Hope for our Sisters, Inc. with a mission statement that is simple and enormous:

“Changing the lives of women, one woman at a time”

I hope this post by Brooke brings you both hope and a challenge. In fact, i would love for this post to generate funding for one more surgery! just $450.00 to give hope! You can read more about Hope for Our Sisters, Inc. by going to the website.

My heart broke in Angola, but it was not Angola itself. Abject poverty, lack of sanitation, and poor medical care options abound. However, Angolans display pride in late-night celebrations and the care invested in each basket made and produce sold. The paradox of pride and joy midst sadness and need.

My heart broke anew when I dove deeper into the realities of fistula, a medical condition caused by obstructed labor and/or trauma leaving women incontinent, resulting in isolation from family, friends and society, lack of dignity, and loss of hope. Lives destroyed.

My door was open. My first trip to Africa. I dreamt of this journey since reading about fistula in 2010. Friends and family supported me with prayers and financial aid. Yet, constant questions took residence in my mind.

Why was I going to Angola? I’m not a doctor. I don’t speak Portuguese. I am simply a wife and mom who said, “Yes”, when called to speak out for our sisters with fistula. Was that enough? Through God, Hope for Our Sisters, Inc., (HFOS), had been fruitful, but I still had questions. In the end, I went.

I traveled with three HFOS team members (Kristen and Paul Coats, Jean Campbell) to visit the Evangelical Medical Center (CEML) in Lubango and bush hospital in Kalukembe, where we fund fistula surgery. We hoped to meet fistula patients to enable us to more effectively raise awareness, help others find healing, and work to prevent this horrific condition. God surprised us as we met fifteen precious fistula patients! Through Audrey Henderson, nurse, fistula advocate and interpreter, we respectfully captured their stories through pictures and video.

Another surprise awaited us as Dr. Steve Foster invited us to watch fistula surgery. Ana* was first to the operating room. Filled with fear in a new environment and unable to speak Portuguese, what amazing courage it took for her to come to CEML. At 20, having lost her first child during labor, Ana* longed for healing from fistula. Joy replaced her fear as she took this brave step towards restoration.

Celia* developed a fistula after her sixth pregnancy. In December 2012, at 29, abandoned by her husband and damaged by fistula, she left her three children with family to travel all day to the hospital. As Celia* awaits healing at the Patient Village, she displays amazing resilience; smiling, laughing, and teasing with fellow fistula patients, living as one victorious.

Luisa*, 32, stays at the Patient Village of the state hospital in Kalukembe, the one remaining former missionary hospital of the 150 before Angola’s civil war. Abandoned by her husband in 2009 after developing fistula and losing her child, Luisa* arrived in December of 2010. After nine unsuccessful fistula surgeries, she remains hopeful. Successive surgeries often decrease the chances of healing, but Dr. Foster recently helped a patient become dry after eleven surgeries. There is hope. Luisa* and fellow fistula patient, Joaquina*, have become each other’s “family” as they await healing.

As for me, I returned with a broken heart. A cost we must all be willing to pay when pursuing justice and healing. An incredibly minor cost in comparison to that paid by those robbed by injustice, but a true cost nonetheless. However, it can make us stronger.

I return to America with greater passion as we continue to raise awareness of fistula. Since these sisters cannot afford to pay for surgery, HFOS’s donors and supporters enable us to fund free fistula surgeries. For less than the cost of a new iPhone ($450), the life of a woman or girl suffering from fistula can be physically restored, paving the way for social, emotional and spiritual healing.

160 fistula surgeries funded…many lives restored…more to come…

*Names have been changed to protect these sisters who so openly shared with us.

Brooke F. Sulahian is the President and Co-Founder of Hope for Our Sisters, Inc. For more information about Hope for Our Sisters, Inc., or fistula, please go to the website at hopeforoursisters.org or visit the Hope for Our Sisters, Inc. page on Facebook.

UN Aims to Help Fistula Patients in Malawi (voanews.com)
MALAWI: Women receive better comprehensive healthcare for obstetric fistula (womennewsnetwork.net)
An Afternoon of Hope Tea Party

Pakistan is an amazing and complex country and a country of extremes. It boasts some of the highest and most beautiful mountain ranges; invites one in to incredible and gracious hospitality; arguably has the best food in the world and, with all that, has some tremendously difficult situations for women.

So it was early on in life that I met women with tremendous disadvantages, many in situations that seemed hopeless. It was before I turned 20, while volunteering at a women’s and children’s hospital in Shikarpur, Sindh, that I first met a woman who had a fistula. By definition a fistula is “a medical condition brought about by obstructed labor and/or trauma leaving a woman with incontinence,” The resulting symptoms are that the woman constantly smells like urine and can never get clean. But that is just the medical definition. The practical definition is loss of family, isolation, being seen as a pariah, and relegated to a cursed position in areas of the world where being a woman brings challenges from the first days of life. Fistulas are indescribably awful for the woman who has one.

”These are the women most to be pitied in the world,” said Dr. Hamlin. ”They’re alone in the world, ashamed of their injuries. For lepers, or AIDS victims, there are organizations that help. But nobody knows about these women or helps them.” (Alone And Ashamed, by Nicholas D. Kristof, Published: May 16, 2003)

Consider these sobering statistics about fistula:

It is estimated that 90% of fistula patients consider suicide as a solution. (Kristof and WuDunn, Half the Sky)

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 2-5 million women have fistula worldwide.

The World Health Organization estimates as many as 50,000 — 100,000 new cases of fistula each year, yet the global treatment capacity is less than 20,000 cases a year. (Hope for Our Sisters)

The treatment is a surgery that has a 90% success rate if there are no complications and with complications the rate is still fairly high at 60%. It is not an exaggeration to say that the treatment saves lives. In a world where these women have been cast out like garbage, alienated and isolated, this surgery brings a hope that radiates through their world, forever changing their future.

“Nothing can equal the gratitude of the woman who, wearied by constant pain and desperate with the realisation that her very presence is an offence to others, finds suddenly that life has been given anew and that she has again become a citizen of the world,” Professor Chassar Moir. (Hamlin and Little, The Hospital By The River)

So why on a Saturday am I bringing up this serious topic? Because today at 1pm eastern time my niece, Christi-Lynn, a nurse and woman who is passionate about women’s health worldwide, is holding a special tea to raise money so that one woman can receive this surgery. The cost of surgery is $450.00. That’s the equivalent of 2 months worth of cell phone service for a family of five. It’s nothing. A tiny dent in a budget – and it changes a life. I have only raised awareness for causes a couple of times, but I believe that those who read Communicating Across Boundaries have a unique love for the world, and for women. So even though you can’t attend – if you can give to the tea party “An Afternoon of Hope” to raise money and awareness of the problem of fistula’s for women around the world, please contact me at communicatingblog@gmail.com.

Blogger’s Note: The organization that my niece is working with is called Hope For Our Sisters: Changing the Lives of Women One Woman at a Time. Much of the information on this post was gleaned from their excellent site. Follow the link for more information including articles as well as information on how you can host a tea. One of my good friends, Judy Long, uses her talent as a photographer to create cards to sell with all proceeds going towards Hope for Our Sisters.

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