Through September 30, gifts—up to a total of $250,000—will be MATCHED* to provide life-transforming treatment for women in Uganda.

Your gift expands access to care for women who have nowhere else to turn.

Sylvia (pictured second from left) was expecting her first child when she labored for three days in her village in Uganda. By the time she was brought to a hospital, it was too late—she had developed a severe perineal tear, a childbirth injury similar to fistula, and began to leak feces from her vagina.

“I would find stool on my clothes and even on the bedsheets,” she said. “I could not stay in public for even an hour. I felt very bad and wondered if this was what women became after childbirth.”

Sylvia retreated into her home. She hid her condition from everyone, even her own mother. She stopped going to church. She could no longer farm. At one point, she even considered leaving her husband because she was so uncomfortable and embarrassed.

Her isolation lasted five years before she received treatment. Many women suffer twice that long. In Uganda, the average time from developing a perineal tear to receiving treatment is 10 years.

At last, Sylvia heard an ad on the radio offering free treatment. She called the number, and they referred her to Fistula Foundation’s partner Surgical Centre Mbarara for care.

“When I return home, everything will be different. I will go to church and work on the farm again without any worries,” she said.

Your matched gift goes twice as far today to help unite a new countrywide network of partners—the Fistula Foundation Treatment Network (FFTN) in Uganda—to expand access to treatment and reach more women like Sylvia in Uganda.

Together, with your support and our partners’ dedication, we can expand treatment, close the time between injury and healing, and break the silence that traps so many mothers like Sylvia in suffering.

Uganda—United. Together we can do more.

*To increase access to these matching funds, the first $25,000 of your gift will be matched.