The world, at home and abroad, is such an unmitigated mess that my heart surges every time I see his byline, especially during his annual award to an aspiring American journalist to accompany him abroad.(The lucky student this year is Erin Luhmann of the University of Wisconsin; their goal this year is Danja, Niger, West Africa, where “young women find healing and hope.” He describes how “they straggle in by foot, donkey cart or bus: humiliated women and girls with their heads downcast, feeling ashamed and cursed, trailing stink and urine.” (NYTimes, 7/14/13.)
Married off at 12 or
13, they become pregnant before their malnourished bodies are ready. They
have suffered a devastating childbirth called an obstetric injury
that has left them “incontinent, leaking urine and sometimes feces
through their vaginas. Most have been sent away by their husbands,
and many have endured years of mockery and ostracism as well as
painful sores on their legs from the steady trickle of urine.”
They had heard of
the daily medical miracles performed at the Danja Fistula Center in
Niger, West Africa. Proudly Kristof speaks of an earlier report of
his that moved hundreds of “Times” readers to donate more than
$500,000 to the Worldwide Fistula Fund so that two idealistic doctors
could open their hospital. This year the first patient they helped was
Hadiza Soulaye. She had never been to school and didn’t know her
own birthdate. Her family married her off at 11 or 12. It was
before she began to menstruate. She was not consulted but became the
second wife of her own uncle. Within a year she was pregnant. She had
no prenatal care and a traditional birth attendant couldn’t help
when she endured three days of obstructed labor. By the time she was
taken to a hospital for a Caesarean delivery, her baby was dead and
she had suffered internal injuries including a hole, or fistula,
between her bladder and vagina. Hadiza didn’t know what happened.
“I just knew I couldn’t control my pee, and I started crying.”
Everybody shunned
her. Her husband threw her out of “his” house; other villagers
regarded her so unclean that they wouldn’t let her fetch water or
prepare food. Her dress was constantly wet with urine and everybody
mocked her. She suffered several years of this abandonment. (She
didn’t realize she had joined a despairing world crowd of two
million fistula sufferers.)
When she heard of
the DFC, Hadiza wondered if they could help her. Dr. Steve Arrowsmith,
a urologist from Michigan who had helped plan the center—and healed
more fistulas than any other Americans—operated on her and fixed
the damage.He warned her not to have sex for six months so that the
repair could heal. (This operation usually costs $500 to $1000.) She
returned to her village thrilled to be healed.
Alas, her husband
ordered her to his bed. He tore open the fistula. She began leaking
again. Her husband threw her out of the house again, where she vowed
never to return. The DFC is conducting research to see how best to
repair these wome. If they halve the operating process they double
the number of women they can repair. Dr. Arrowsmith and Dr. Lewis
Wall an obstetric professor from Washington University in St. Louis
are partners with Serving in Mission, an American Christian charity
with long experience in Danja. But they want the Africans to be in
charge so Dr. Arrowsmith is training Dr.Itengre’ Ouedraogo to
takeover.
Kristof concludes in
an upbeat: “This fistula center continues to exist on a shoestring,
struggling for operating funds. But the exuberance of the patients is
contagious, and I wanted readers to know that your generosity has
built a city of joy. (That’s right! Reach for your checkbook.
500 grand doesn’t last that long !) These women may arrive
miserable and shamed, but they leave proud, heads held high. And in a
complicated world of trouble, that’s a reason to celebrate.”
Heh, maybe you’ll
be the lucky companion next year. Write him at the “Times” for
his rules!
Another version of this essay is published by Broad Street Review.
Another version of this essay is published by Broad Street Review.
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