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A debilitating condition that causes millions of stillbirths across Africa and can make social outcasts of the mothers who suffer from it could be eradicated in Tanzania in just four years, thanks to the humble text message.
Almost 3,000 Tanzanian women a year suffer obstetric fistula during lengthy or obstructed labour. In almost 95% of cases the baby dies. The women are then often stigmatised by their families, who do not understand the condition, which causes a hole to appear between the vagina and the rectum.
"They say it's 'witchcraft' and throw the women out of their homes," Jane Cleophas Rugalabamu, who suffered from the condition, told the Guardian. "When you have it everyone ignores you, you can't work, you can't go out in public. Life is not worth living."
As is typical, Rugalabamu did not know what was wrong with her and suffered in silence for several months until a friend told her that it was a recognised medical condition that could be put right with a simple £250 operation. Rugalabamu was rushed to a Dar es Salaam hospital dedicated to treating the condition. Within 45 minutes she was cured.
Despite the Tanzanian government, the European Union and charities pumping millions of pounds into fighting fistula, the number of cases of the debilitating condition are increasing every year. "We have a nice big hospital, full of good doctors, but no patients," said Tom Vanneste, deputy director of a local NGO, Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT). "The problem is they [the women] either don't know that they can be cured, or can't afford the cost of the bus to hospital."
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Hii ni Blog ya Watanzania popote walipo duniani kwa ajili ya kuhabarisha, kutoa/kupokea taarifa na kuelimisha mambo yote yaliyo chanya kwa Taifa letu. Tafadhali sana unapotoa maoni usichafue hali ya hewa wala usijeruhi hisia za mtu/watu. Kuwa mstaarabu...