A New Adventure

Hello all!

As many of you may know, I am conducting an internship in Maradi, Niger this semester at the Danja Fistula Center with the Worldwide Fistula Fund.  I am incredibly excited to see women's healthcare at the grassroots NGO level and to understand many of the challenges involved with administration of adequate health services with limited resources.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with obstetric fistula or vesicovaginal fistula, it is a hole that forms between the bladder wall and the vagina due to prolonged childbirth.  Women who are in need of a cesarean section yet are not in adequate facilities for the procedure often develop a fistula.  In childbirth the baby's body presses against the bladder wall cutting off blood supply thus causing tissue death and the formation of a hole.  This hole leaks urine through the vagina and leaves women incontinent due to their lack of bladder control.  Women with obstetric fistula are the most devalued in society and are often isolated due to their urine soaked clothing.  Surgical repair of fistulas is the only treatment and requires proper surgical resources which are often lacking in rural areas of Niger.

At the Danja Fistula Center I will be helping to set up a brand new fistula center that will accept its first surgical patients on February 6.  I will be living on the compound at the hospital viewing surgeries and assisting in community development of prevention methods in nearby villages.  I leave tomorrow for Niger and I look forward to posting about what I am learning and sharing it with everyone.  If you would like to send me a letter my address is below:

SIM NIGER

CSL Danja

 B.P. 10065
9 Rue de la Tarka
Niamey,  Republique du Niger