Votoka has registered more than 220 women for the May operations campaign. So far 57 of these women received life-changing fistula repair operations on the first 3 days of campaign. There are 7 more days of operations to go; and Votoka will stay with these women until the very last patient is released from hospital, which can be another 6 weeks from today.
We believe in supporting the women as much as possible, from finding them in their villages and towns, to registering them for operations, and accompanying them from the operating hospital (Strangway) to the recovery locations. Every moment we can share our love, faith, empathy, hope and strength with them, we do. We ensure they are given quality post-operative care and health education with our team of dedicated nurses.
Throughout this whole process the hard work of our counselling and reintegration team is front and centre. After their operations we begin trauma counselling for all the women, as well as skills development by teaching them how to sew. This not only helps grow their self-esteem and sense of competency, it also gives them something useful with which to fill their time. These women wait anxiously for 2-3 weeks to recover from their surgery and undertake the "blue test" which will let them know if their fistula has been closed or not.
This year our reintegration team has prepared small hygiene bags for each lady - including a razor, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste in a handmade bag. In the gallery you will see a photo of some members of the team (Elisa, Mariana and Ernesto) as well as volunteer Vidal.
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