This year, for our Christmas gift, we want to change one woman’s life. Our goal is to raise $619 to fund one woman’s surgery through Fistula Foundation.
Fistula Foundation is one of the recipients of this year’s Kristof Holiday Impact Prize, which celebrates organizations working to make the world a better place.
Alyssa read Nicholas Kristof and Cheryl WuDunn’s book Half the Sky in 2011, which inspired her to support women around the world with microloans through Kiva.
This gift of $619 will provide a high-quality surgery that can cure a woman’s incontinence and restore her health.
What Is Obstetric Fistula?
Obstetric fistula is a devastating childbirth injury. It leaves a woman incontinent, humiliated, and—all too often—shunned by her community. Obstetric fistula ranks as one of humanity’s most disabling injuries, but it can be cured by a surgery that costs, on average, only $619.
An obstetric fistula occurs when a mother has a prolonged, obstructed labor, but doesn’t have access to emergency medical care, such as a C-section. During a prolonged labor, a woman experiences contractions that continually push a baby’s head against her pelvis. Soft tissues caught between the baby’s head and her pelvic bone become compressed, restricting the normal flow of blood. Without adequate blood supply, sections of tissue soon die, leaving a hole—known as a “fistula”—between the woman’s vagina and her bladder or rectum. This hole causes her to become incontinent. If the fistula goes untreated, the woman will uncontrollably leak urine or stool (and sometimes both) for the rest of her life.
Untreated obstetric fistula most commonly occurs in poor, rural areas of Africa and Asia where the women affected live in dirt-floor dwellings and lack access to running water and incontinence pads. Unable to control the leaking of her body’s waste, she suffers with chronic infections and pain. Too often, her smell drives away her husband, family, and friends.
With little community understanding of her injury and its causes, a woman is frequently blamed for her condition. She too often lives in isolation, unaware that others share her injury, and that it is treatable.
Fistula Foundation provides free fistula repair surgery to women, and invests in surgeon training and other services, in more than 30 countries across Africa and Asia. Since 2009, Fistula Foundation has delivered more than 100,000 life-transforming surgeries at nearly 200 sites in 35 countries across Africa and Asia.
No other organization brings healing to more women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries. The Foundation funds more fistula repair surgeries across more countries than any other organization, including the United Nations and the U.S. government.
— Alyssa and Peter
For questions about other donation options, contact Alyssa Vu (alyssa@fistulafoundation.org).