Facia Harris reports on fistula in Liberia

I recently invited my friend Facia Harris to join the networked blogs network for this blog on facebook.  She was so excited to hear we were working on fistula, so I asked her to tell me about what she knew.  Facia lives in Liberia, where she produces an all-girl magazine radio program that allow s girls and young women to speak out about their issues and speak with mentors and policy makers about the advancement of young women and girls.  Here’s what she had to say:

The West African State Liberia has an estimated population of 3.5 million and is a country graduating from more than 14 years civil crisis with devastating consequences including severe shortage of manpower, high mortality rate of live births and high Infant mortality rate.

The Liberia Fistula Project was established and launched April 6th, 2007 by the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, UNFPA and the government major referral hospital, John F. Kennedy hospital.

The project provides a comprehensive approach consisting of Fistula prevention programs in collaboration with a local NGO – the Liberia prevention of maternal and new born mortality – training of doctors, Nurses and midwives,treatment of fistula patients, surgical management by the core team of trained doctor and nurses, and rehabilitation and reintegration for rejected patients:

The project has established seven project sites in the capital Monrovia and in six rural hospitals. These rural hospitals are in Bomi, Lofa, Nimba, Bassa, Grand Gedeh and Maryland counties.

In 2008 the Liberia Fistula Project established and equipped and staffed a fistula rehabilitation and reintegration center for the training of rejected fistula survivors in various income generating activities: Literacy, Business management, Tailoring, Soap making, Cosmetology, Tie and dye, Pastry, Interior decoration.

As part of its advocacy programs for media and community mobilization, the project in partnership with Another Level Inc. a media and advocacy group officially launched an intensified media coverage of fistula activities on radio and television stations throughout the country with fistula messages disseminated through English and local vernacular languages in Liberia; flyers describing fistula prevention and treatment messages were distributed to the public. Banners, brochures and T-shirts were also distributed.

As a result of these activities, according to the Head of the Liberia Fistula Project, Dr. John Mulbah, there is an increasing demand for fistula services, making an increasing need for adequate funding to implement the project and related activities.

Dr. Mulbah also noted that there are multiplicities of problems in addressing the condition of fistula in Liberia, ranging from clinical and socio-economic status of patients, difficulty in accessing some project sites because of bad road condition, high illiteracy rate amongst patients and stigma associated, among others.

To date UNFPA continue to be the major funding source for the implementation of all three components of the fistula program. All fistula services are provided free of charge.

Obstetric fistulae account for nearly 86% of all causes of fistula according the statistics from the Liberia Fistula Project and the average age range of patients is between 11 to 20 years. To date more then 500 women and girls have been treated for fistula and subsequently benefited from training at the Rehab center and reintegration, from 2006 to present.