Giving back lives

The above photo shows the entrance to the VVF (Vesico vaginal fistula) center at Evangel hospital.

VVF's are a very big issue in Africa. Almost all VVF's are caused by prolonged obstructed labor resulting in a dead infant. After the dead child starts to break down it will deliver.The tissue around the area where the head had been stuck starts to die and break down due to the lack of blood supply while the infant was still inside the mother. Once the fistula develops and the women starts leaking she is often divorced by the husband and has to live on her own.

Currently Evangel operates on 15-30 women per month.They have a hostel where the women live and recover from their operation. Every Tuesday they have a time when they celebrate the women being discharged from the hospital.This morning two women were leaving.One had been there three weeks,the other five weeks.

Aisha below offered her story as an example.Her third child was full term.After three days in labor she had a C-section. A fistula developed and her husband divorced her. After needing several operations at Evangel she has now been dry for ten months.