Fistula Village in Mbingo – A Novelty of Hope!
Fistula is a health condition that women pass out urine uncontrollably from the vagina mainly attributed to difficult and prolong labour during childbirth. This health condition is associated with stigma leading to shame, self-stigma, withdrawal and isolation due to the smell and odour it generates. Victims of fistula are generally women from very poor backgrounds who cannot seek medical care on time.
A majority of these women were hopeless until they found hope to live again amongst their families and communities, thanks to support from Hope and Healing International Canada via the CBC Health Services’ Socio-Economic Empowerment of People with Disabilities (SEEPD) program.
The Socio-Economic Empowerment of Females with Fistula (SEEFF) project, a component of the SEEPD program, has one-year mandate (July 2022 to June 2023) to fish out women with fistula in three regions of Cameroon (Adamawa, West and Northwest) and bring them to the hospital for treatment, which is surgery at Mbingo Baptist Hospital in the Northwest region.
SEEFF Project Officer, Ayenjika Yasemeratu is upbeat that the project will meet its target of finding 65 women with fistula in record time. At the time of this report, 42 clients have been identified and 21 have received treatment. The others are on schedule by Dr. Ngock George, surgeon in-charge and clinical supervisor of the project.
Three cases of relapse, when they returned to their communities after surgery, prompted the project to take action by keeping the women in Mbingo for observation for an average of one month after surgery. “No case of relapse has been reported since January 2023 when we set up the Fistula Village in Mbingo,” Yasemeratu notes.
The social worker in-charge of the Fistula Village, Mabel Fahbei says more that eight clients have been hosted in the village. They return to their communities when the doctor declares them healed. At the moment, three of them were still in the village together with their caregivers. As a routine, the social workers counsel them and boost their psychology as they prepare to go back and face those, who hitherto, looked at them as outcasts.
Other challenges, according to the social worker, are the fact that Dr. Ngock is the lone surgeon that attends to cases of fistula and given his workload, some cases delay. A majority of the clients are poor even to cover feeding cost. Language barrier is a challenge, especially for Fulani clients resulting in a feeling of bridge of confidentiality when a third party is involved to translate. Initially, some of the clients doubted the success of the treatment via surgery given their unsuccessful sojourn to other hospitals and irregular places before coming to Mbingo.
Hope at last! All three women who spoke to this reporter were filled with joy, satisfaction and thankfulness to Hope and Healing International Canada for paying all their medical bills including surgery and for providing them with dignity kits. They thanked the CBC Health Services for putting in place such a program through which they could be helped and to the doctors and nurses of Mbingo Baptist for the compassionate care given them during their stay in Mbingo.
“I used to use 6 pads before surgery, but today I can use one for the whole,” Beatrice, mother of six from Magba.
Seventeen-year old girl from Nyara-Banyo beamed with smile from her bed to confess that she no longer has any leakage after the surgery.
In tears, the caregiver of Aminatu, native of Sabongari narrated how her sister suffered from fistula for 12 good years. “When the husband abandoned her, she left in anger to Nigeria and we thought she had died. When Aminatu returned to meet me in Douala in the same condition, I gave up every other thing to stand by her. Today, I lack words to thank the CBC for treating my sister free of charge. May God continue to bless the CBC and her donor – Hope and Healing International Canada,” the caregiver lamented in conclusion.