NGO LAUNCHES FIGHT TO END FISTULA

Participants during the fistula walk
 
By Onzoma Albert
Arua City
 
Palma Hope Memorial Center a non-governmental organization based in West Nile region is raising awareness for the prevention of Fistula and mobilizing over sixty million for setting-up a rehabilitation and social re-integration center for fistula survivors in Arua City and which will serve the entire West Nile region.
 
The organization has launched an annual West Nile Fistula Walk aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing resources to set-up a rehabilitation and social re-integration center for fistula survivors.
 
Lillian Eyotaru, the executive director of Palma Hope Memorial Center and the organizer behind the West Nile fistula walk says they are mobilizing support from the people of Uganda to end the suffering caused by obstetric fistula in the country.
 
“We are here to raise awareness on fistula in Uganda the common type is obstetric fistula and we are at the same time mobilizing resources to establish a rehabilitation center for the proper healing of our mothers after fistula surgery” she said.
 
Dr Gilbert Aniku, who works with Arua regional referral hospital and one of the participants during the West Nile Fistula Walk says many women are still suffering from obstetric fistula in silence and he appeals for more awareness about the disease in the communities.
 
“Fistula is an abnormal connection between the birth canal and the urinary bladder or the rectum especially the one called obstetric is the one that occurs as a result of complication of labor which is obstructed and prolonged which many of our girls and mothers are not aware of in most communities,” he said. 
 
Caroline Angucia, a fistula survivor urges the women who are suffering from obstetric fistula to open up and seek for early treatment.
 
“My life has now changed and anything concerning fistula urging my fellow mothers out there to always report and seek for medical attention and I am now one of the people helping the victims of fistula in directing them to the hospital because the disease is preventable and treatable,” she said.  
 
Fistula continues to rob thousands of women and girls in Uganda-especially in West Nile sub-region of their dignity, health and livelihoods.
 
With 1,900 new cases occurring annually in Uganda, increased treatment effort by government, the need for a specialized, women-centered recovery and empowerment facility to absorb the social re-integration back log of over 450 Fistula treated cases is urgent and long overdue in the region. 
 
 
 

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