Operation New Life - Background > The Fistula problem in Niger

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Fistula - What is it?

Medical condition, caused by prolonged obstructed labour where there is no medical assistance, where young girls bodies are not mature enough to deliver vaginally.

200,000 women are affected by vaginal fistula - Because of their condition these women are known as "lepers of the desert"

For these young women life is filled with humiliation, discomfort and shame due to their inability to control their urine and faeces. They are no longer wanted, they are ostracized by their husbands, generally by their families also and even their villages. Many are homeless and forced to live a life of isolation and extreme poverty. They are society’s outcasts, living in shame.

Why?

Combination of social, cultural, tribal and religious factors

Early marriage as a means of escape from poverty

50% of all women in Niger give birth while still in their teens

Some as young as 10 years of age

Siobhan in the hospital's courtyard where
women await fistula surgery.