Fistula Foundation Zambia Program Director Bwalya Chomba has called on women suffering from the fistula condition to avoid self-pity and stigmatization but open up and seek help as the condition is repairable.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS today, Ms Chomba said a woman with fistula is often rejected by her husband, family and pushed out of her community causing women to go in isolation.
She said the condition often comes about as a result of not seeking specialized medical help during child birth and the prolonged obstructed labor.
Ms Chomba said fistula condition is treatable, preventable and repairable as the country now has a number of surgeons trained in fistula repair surgery stationed in Monze, Kabwe, Chilonga, Mansa and Lusaka Hospitals.
She said the Fistula Foundation works to treat poor women who suffer from the condition and ensuring that they access surgery at a hospital nearer to them while working in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
Ms Chomba added that the condition is often surrounded with myths because women in the situation are often said to have been bewitched or cursed, when the condition comes as a result of not seeking medical care during child birth.
She added that every expectant mother is at risk of having the fistula condition hence the need to always attend antenatal checkups as stipulated by the Ministry of Health as well as ensure that they deliver at a health facility where they have access to proper medical help in case of any complications.
The Fistula Foundation program started in January 2017 and will end in December 2019. Its objective is to build capacity of health care providers in order to increase the number of women receiving quality fistula repair surgery in Zambia.
The Foundation seeks to improve awareness, reduce stigma and increase the number of referrals of women for treatment.
What is Fistula condition?
🙂
And this is the main issue why the women don’t report, simply because they don’t know what the H.E.LL is fistula condition?
fistula condition here…..fistula condition there. But no one knows what this lady is talking about. If she cannot communicate why is she surprised when no one shows up.
D.A.M.N…….Name the issue !!!
These NGOs are inventing anything.
Travel Disorder Foundation.
And donors pour in money.
Fistula condition occurs when the membrane that separates the an@s opening and the V!rgin!a tears (rips) during child birth and the mother/woman becomes incontinent (can’t hold their pee or poop.) In a serious condition, they can’t hold both. A simple operation to repair the rip after giving birth usually takes care of the problem. And this condition is routinely checked and immediately reparIred where good medical services are available.
This is what we call a hallf-baked story. If the journalist wants to inform and educate it is incumbent upon him to explain what Fistula is not just throw it at the reader
Imagin!! Its like presenting a paper on Lavushi Manda Ditrict at an International Conference in Egypt and expect people to know where Lavushi Manda District is, when even half the population of Zambia do not know that we have such a District in Zambia.
Fistula sounds like an insult. Sure mwe, what is it?
The journalism profession in Zambia has really failed to live to expectation. When their colleagues else where are specialising in gorilla and investigative journalism they are still studying grade 12 PROSE SUMMARY writing. The odds of reading a self sufficient article which does not require extra use of internet bundle are polar poles apart. An article as the one above would need: prevalence rates of fistula in Zambia, most affected age range, causes and effects and its local name(s) apart from its definition. But alas! just another shot in the dark. Come 2019, more unattended to fistula-affected women, no reliable case records, just more linen to block sewage and accusing stares on them public buses as to who is the cause of that suffocating uric stench.