[From the diaries by susanhbu.] [This is part of Susan’s challenge, to cover the 10 Most Ignored News Stories. There are still some uncovered ones to sign up for 🙂 ]
I had a hard time writing this article because, while I could give chapter and verse on the horrors of fistula, I couldn’t picture the women who are burdened with
this dreadful, but entirely preventable and curable, medical condition. In my mind these women remained nameless and faceless, people to feel pity for, but still in an abstract way. I knew I needed more than that, however, because the tendency (including mine) when hearing the term “fistula” is to look away. I needed to be able to look straight on to do this story, so I decided to look at someone I know well, and imagine her somewhere else. .
Come with me now, and you can look too… I promise that while I hope to make you (and me) uncomfortable, I won’t gross you out. I just want to introduce you to someone special, and let you know how you can feel ten feet tall in a matter of minutes. Ready? Here’s a peek.
She is 26 years old, a mother, a daughter, a wife. Her name is Hadiya…”the gift”.
I can see her face, now, you know… her big brown eyes that usually glint with laughter and good humor, but which can become piercing and direct when she’s trying to encourage someone to can the BS and get to the point. Oh, and she’s unmatched at the “eye roll” when someone says or does something stupid or silly… but then she usually winds up laughing at that too.
I can see her smile… big as the sky, one that draws you in and bids you smile with her. And her laugh… I dare anyone to refrain from at least having their lips 
start to twitch when she gets the giggles… a more likely scene is people around breaking into laughter as well, even if they don’t know what they are laughing at. She’s just infectious that way, inviting you to share in her joy in life, and to make it yours.
I can even see her in the midst of her family, when things were good… joining the women, young and old, in the kitchen, as is their way, catching up on all the family news… maybe they are preparing a holiday meal, while her husband and the other men sit outside and smoke, swapping their own tall stories. Or I can see her sitting in the shade of a tree, cradling her youngest close to her chest as she watches the village children play kickball in the dusty street. At the end of a long, hard day, I can see her giving her children a goodnight kiss as they snuggle into bed, ready to dream of big adventures after the nightly story telling.
But now everything is quiet… the only sounds that of her breathing, or maybe it’s the barely heard rustle of a nocturnal animal moving through the brush… she sits and stares at a place that she needs no light to see, because it is far beyond anything that can be touched with the hands or examined with the eyes… it’s then that I can see her best.
She is 26 years old and she knows she is dying. She is 26 years old, has fistula, and her life is leaking out of her, a little at a time; the baby she should have been showering with joy is buried down the road, dead before it had a chance to live. She is 26 years old, she is dying, and she is maybe my daughter (or yours), had she been born in a different place or time.
While my California daughter, Mindi, zips around in her little car, to and from work, now off to the mall or the theater, maybe popping into the grocery store for something for dinner … my Ethiopian daughter, Hadiya, drags herself along in the shadows, as ashamed to be seen as others are ashamed to be seen with her. Her husband is gone. She sometimes has to beg for food to feed herself and her living children; on occasion someone will toss her a little something, with averted eyes, and move on quickly. Sort of like we do.
When Mindi travels through the city, she might pass 2 or 3 hospitals and any number of clinics. Childbirth has its share of dangers, no matter where you are, but should Mindi go through a difficult pregnancy, any one of those medical centers could at least stabilize her and most could help her deliver her baby safely.
Hadiya can travel the length and breadth of her rural village, but she won’t find even one small clinic, let alone a large hospital. Had it been just a few years earlier that she had her troubled pregnancy and childbirth, she could have gone to the Planned Parenthood clinic that was located within her village, and been under the care of qualified obstetricians, possibly saving her baby, but definitely saving her from the horrors of fistula, a condition that has been eliminated in Western countries due to improved obstetric care.
The clinic is closed now, though, due to a lack of funding, mandated by the US “global gag rule”.
So many problems we come across in various countries just seem intractable and impossible to surmount, leading us to despair of ever making a difference, but you know what? This isn’t one of them. This… this is something we can do. This is something that can be cured with little effort. What would it take to give Hadiya her life back? To allow her to walk with dignity again, in the light, instead of skulk in the shadows? To allow her to laugh again, and play with her children? To close up her wounds, to cleanse her of the imposed shame of this condition, and to allow her to be a part of her society again?
Yes, that’s right. Three hundred dollars. See? Didn’t I tell you this was doable? Thank goodness we are liberal elites, sipping Starbuck’s every morning, and having dinner out and attending the theater every night, because that means we’ve got money, honey. Okay, well so some of us are poor as church mice, but we still have a voice. Or a pen or a fax machine, and we can still make noise. Think of your daughter, mother, sister, friend… or mine, if it helps, and realize that this is not something that has to be, that can’t be helped without UN intervention or an act of Congress.
This is something we can do. So, let’s do it.
How you can help today:
Campaign to end fistula – UNFPA
Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.(*photos used in this article are from this site) — Profiled on Oprah’s Angel Network
Or just go down the google search list and pick one that appeals to you (and that checks out as a legitimate option).
Thanks.
Thank you! I also pulled up the PDF report via your U.N. link. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know about this problem 🙁 It must be excruciatingly painful, and so very debilitating and embarrassing.
So, tell me more. What is Bush doing to screw up the solution?
I didn’t know about a lot of this stuff either, especially how widespread it was. What I mostly didn’t know though is how simple it is to fix. I didn’t go into a lot of detail… the links give it all, for those who want all the medical terms and such. The genital mutilation thing (haven’t heard from those people yet, will email again) plays into it as well, but that is just one cause. Mostly, it’s just a “simple” matter of no real pre-natal or obstetric care.
What is Bush doing to screw up the solution?
Well, everything possible, it seems like. From the global gag rule, which is well known and documented to cause major problems in many poor areas, to threatening to veto any bill that removes it, even if passed by the Senate and Congress, to conspiring with the religious Islamic Right in very women unfriendly countries, and the religious Christian Right in the UN to prevent more funds and programs for the fighting of AIDS and fistula and other things. And more… I am trying to avoid hating these people :).
This speech is a must read, by the way, when there is time. You can feel this man’s pain and frustration, even through the printed word: Who Speaks for the Women?. It deals with AIDS, but it’s applicable to many issues, including this one.
Holy shit, that Steven Lewis is one passionate and persuasive speaker. That was an amazing speech.
Isn’t he? That speech was infuriating and heartbreaking… I could just feel his emotions through the words. And lot of information that I wasn’t aware of, like the lack of women on the committees and such in the UN and so on… it was hopeful too though, because it gives a starting place to do something about it.
You can make old men cry.
People who are not lucky enough to have $300 can print out Nanette’s piece and take it to your mosque, temple, drum circle, book group, whatever, and get it in front of some people who do have $300.
Doesn’t she write wonderfully? There’s such a lovely flow to the words and the story.
And Susan too. I am honored.
Thats a good idea to take this (or something similar) around… UNFPA accepts small donations too, of $10 or so, and it all adds up… but doing a group thing if possible is a good idea. It also works to let people know the problem even exists.
Thanks for suggesting it.
(Which is not a good idea, I am Against arithmetic.)
There are a few million women on earth with this condition. Each one can get it fixed for $300. The surgery is simple and has a 95% success rate.
Let’s say there are 5 million women who need the operation. Now remember I am Against arithmetic and don’t intend to make a fool of myself throwing around dangerous 5s and 3s and zeros, but I would like for you all to do that, and compare the answer you get to:
US aid to Israel
costofwar.com
I’m sure you can find other figures to compare it to, too.
It would be possible, and not too hard, to get operations for every single lady who needs it.
I am against arithmetic too, only even more so than you are, but I also did some earlier today. On a much smaller scale however ;).
For one woman, one cure:
1 pair of Bill Frist’s shoes
about 1/4 a months rent/mortgage in some parts of CA
A day at the salon… cut, dye, set, style, manicure and pedicure.
1 month’s car payment
One could of course go on and on, figuring out what would be comparable to the cost of helping one person, two people, a few thousand, or, as you say, a few million.
Thing is, the way is there… combined governmental efforts (or just a wave of the hand of just one government) could probably end this immediately. They, and we, are lacking the will, though, sadly.
Much of our armchair activism on sites like BMT often seems like we’re just butting our heads up against the wall. In many instances, all we can really do is add one more voice to the chorus and hope that someone else, someone in a position to act, will hear us.
But here is an overlooked issue where each and every one of us can potentially make a significant impact. With a few clicks of a mouse, we, too, can act.
The money needed is comparatively small, so to those who can afford to give something — even a small amount — please do so.
To those who can’t spare the cash, spread the word: Forward Nanette’s diary to some people you know. Send it to your local media. Write a Letter to the Editor. Contact your Representatives and Senators. Find out what Bill Frist, who goes on medical missions to Africa, intends to do about this.
Can you really turn away without trying to help?
As I was researching this. At first I dreaded having yet another thing to pound fruitlessly on the doors of Congress about. Then I realized that… Wow! we can do this. No matter who we are, we can do some little thing that can have an effect on this one issue, even if it’s “just” saving one woman’s life. That is just amazingly exciting, lol.
Thank you and please do spread the word, whether you use this piece or just point people to one of the donation sites. Each one of us has the opportunity to feel 10 feet tall, for at least a time :).
Although I don’t really like doing so, but I figured many hands, more eyeballs hopefully = more help for these women, so it’s almost a duty, lol.
Recommended and commented over there too – same reason that you cross-posted there, hoping to get the word to more people.
Here’s the comment I left there:
I followed your link and read about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital – it is an amazing place. Here’s the page that gives its history and more information about the hospital itself. I highly recommend viewing the photo essay. As Nanette has so beautifully written, it’s when we see the faces of our sisters that we realize that we can reach out and change a real, living, thinking, feeling person’s life.
And if you can afford a donation, the hospital is building satellite centers so that more women can be helped. The first center has been completed, and four more are planned in the next five years. The link shows a map of where the satellite centers will be located. As you can see, the distances are great and many of the women who hear about the hospital must walk to get there, so these centers are very important.
Awesome story, Nanette. Thank you so much. I’ll email it to my friends.
Thank you… and thanks for pointing out the satellite centers! For some reason I missed seeing that.
It didn’t get a lot of notice over there, but then I didn’t expect it to… wrong sort of diary. But I know usually more people read than comment or anything, so still more word is out.
Nanette, what an incredible amount of eloquence, caring and passion in your diary. I hope this will somehow make a difference in hopefully at least several lives, all due to your writing.
Thank you, chocolate (and everyone) for all your kind and encouraging words. I really appreciate them and take them to heart.
Of course, one has to thank Susan for finding these stories and encouraging people to write about them, which caused me, at least, to break out a bit from my “oh, but I can’t do that” comfort zone. All the resulting articles from everyone have been excellent, and if through our efforts even one life is changed, or one mind opened, what a great accomplishment that would be for our little boo pond.
A powerfully compelling story, Nanette. Thank you so much for bringing this terrible situation to our attention. I’m sorry to say I was blissfully unaware of this terrible crisis. I will be doing all that I can to spread the word of this, and to share the information and links you have provided here. This is certainly a solvable problem.
Thank you, also, for providing a link to the speech by Steven Lewis. Very powerful stuff.
Just five ‘recommends’? This deserves more!
did that show Boogal and I wrote that organization a check. It was one of only maybe three Oprah shows I have ever watched.
I haven’t watched Oprah in years, but I love her Angel Network thing, and that she highlights the various things people are doing to help others in society and brings stuff like this hospital to international attention.
I can forgive her a lot of stuff for that reason alone 😉