International Day to End Obstetric Fistula

Yesterday, the 23rd of May, was the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. Improving maternal health and ending obstetric fistula has been part of the Millenium Development Goals since their inception. Sadly, the current target of ending obstetric fistula by 2030 appears to be entirely unachievable.

Meet Deolinda, she currently suffers from urinary incontinence as a result of an Obstetric Fistula. We want to prevent obstetric fistula before it occurs to avoid the suffering of thousands of women like Deolinda.

That doesn't mean we should give up hope! In fact it means we should dedicate ourselves with even more fervour to the prevention of obstetric fistula as well as the treatment of those living with obstetric fistula. We are incredibly grateful to our donors, Fistula Foundation and Hope for Our Sisters, for their unwavering support and their dedication to supporting and erradicating Obstetric Fistula.

Our motto is "Rise up with love and hope"!

We are proud to share a few things Votoka and our partners have been working on lately:

1. Prevention Training for Traditional Birth Attendants (Community midwives)

In April and early May our team conducted 14 one-day training sessions, in 12 different municipalities of Huambo. This is the first ever province-wide training about obstetric fistula for traditional birth attendants in Angola! Overall we trained 727 traditional birth attendants and 47 government health technicians. Our training was delivered in both Portuguese and Umbundu and focused on: healthy pregnancies, how to identify warning signs during pregnancy, the dangers of obstructed and/or prolonged birth at home, and key advice to prevent obstetric fistula. Many of the midwives had not heard of obstetric fistula before, and upon hearing about the devastating reality of this birth injury, demonstrated a strong desire and willingness to help identify patients in their community. We distributed 248 sets of twenty A4 laminated images to be used by the traditional birth attendants to conduct awareness lectures in their communities, in order to help educate their communities about obstetric fistula.

We are incredibly proud of our training team, coordinated and trained by Petra Jobse, and are excited about the impact this training will have!

2. Repair Operation Campaign in Bie

On the 16th of May the Votoka team were concentrated in Bie for the first day of registration for a Repair Operation Campaign for women living with obstetric fistula. From the 19th of May to the 2nd of June, Dr Paolo Parimbelli from Luanda and his team, together with Dr Michael Breen of Ireland and Dr Ian Assiimwe of Uganda will operate on over 150 women at Strangway Hospital in Bie.

During repair campaigns our objective is to be a voice for the women and help ensure they receive the best care possible. We begin from registration, where we do our best to show the women love and attention and care. This is in stark contrast to how they may have been received at health posts and hospitals for years. Then we help to support the post-operative care. Although the operation itself may sometimes take less than 1 hour, the post-operative recovery period can take 2 to 4 weeks! Through all of this, we provide trauma counselling and reintegration support. This starts a with showing love, patience and concern for the women. Providing them with basic necessities such as soap and toothbrush and toothpaste. Giving nutritious soy milk to the women who are waiting to be operated on, and to those who have been operated on, to help aid their recovery. It also involves networking to find blood donors to help fill the bloodbank at the hospital. Our partners CICA and the Scouts from IECA church have been at the forefront of blood donations this campaign.

We will continue to provide updates as the campaign progresses :)

3. SafeBirth4All Initiative - Official Strategy Launched

On the 21st of May the SafeBirth4All Initiative (https://www.safebirth4all.com/) hosted their 2nd Annual Conference in person (in Dublin) and online. Here they formally announced their Strategy Pillars, which we 100% align with: Be PART of the Solution Prevention Advocacy Rehabilitation Treatment

They also launched, in collaboration with Misean Cara, a pathway for donations or to become involved in the Initiative (https://www.miseancara.ie/sb4a/).