At last there is a reason for a smile to those women with a birth injury called- Fistula

A year after UNFPA conducted pull repairs of women affected with fistula in the North East Capital of Borno State, a program that got over 60 women repaired during the week-long campaign, there were smiles across the state. Interest among women with the condition piqued and this generated an increase in visits to the medical facility, hence another round of routine repairs was agreed between the state and UNFPA for the backlog to be cleared.

With the funding support of Canada and KOICA, the United Nations Population Fund renovated the hospital theatre and equipped it for the campaign. To date, the theatre functions and conducts routine repairs by trained surgeons. This has attracted more women from the rural areas to have repairs done at the center.

Bintu Modu is a beneficiary of the pull repairs, in her words, ‘’I feel lucky because now my community have accepted me and I do attend the gathering, while before the repairs I can’t go out because of shame and smell that follows me, I am no wetter and I come from my house to the center to learn skills, we even do some sewing clothes and making of soap, it feels great my life has changed for the better’’.