UNFPA in Malawi will once again support Mulanje District Hospital to conduct obstetric fistula repair session/camp with technical and financial support from Freedom from Fistula Foundation and International Medical Response (IMR). This is the sixth time a repair session/the camp is being conducted at Mulanje district hospital. The camp is targeting women from Mulanje and Phalombe and all the southern region districts. The repair session is scheduled to start on 20th April and end on 2nd May 2018 targeting more than 40 women.

The camp is targeting women from Mulanje and Phalombe and all the southern region districts.

The repair session is scheduled to start on 20th April and end on 2nd May 2018 targeting more than 40 women.

Over the past camps, UNFPA has supported the repair of a total of 120 women at Mulanje district hospital.

In 2015, UNFPA supported the first ever fistula camp in Mulanje where over 25 women were repaired. Among those repaired was a woman who had lived with fistula for 66 years.

Apart from Mulanje district hospital, the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA supports obstetric fistula camps at Bwaila Hospital, Dedza, Nkhatabay, Chikwawa, Mchinji and Mangochi districts every year.

An obstetric fistula is a childbearing injury caused by obstructed labour. With prolonged labour and sustained pressure of the baby’s head on the mother’s pelvic bone, most of the soft tissues are damaged creating a hole – or fistula – between the vagina and the bladder and/or rectum. The result is the leaking of urine and/or feces into the vagina. Women with this condition smell either urine or feces and usually suffer stigma and isolation.

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