A Safaricom Sales representative, Ms Sophie Onyango has urged women with fistula complications not to suffer in silence but to visit health facilities for treatment.
Onyango spoke in Webuye where 60 women suffering from fistula underwent successful corrective surgery at the Webuye Referral Hospital in Bungoma County during the free fistula operation campaign that ended over the weekend.
The campaign was the brainchild of Bungoma County Government’s health department in collaboration with the Safaricom Foundation, the Office of the First Lady, Amref Health Africa, Flying doctors service and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Onyango added that the Mpesa Foundation injected Sh15 million into the Fistula campaign to make a difference in the lives of suffering women.
She added that Mpesa Foundation also runs a program known as Maternal Child Health which has also been escalated in other counties including Samburu to ensure safe parenthood.
“This program is not only here in Bungoma. We have so far initiated it in Samburu County and in eleven other counties under the banner, ‘ Uzazi Salama’ safe parenthood,” she affirmed.
She said that the program has so far been very helpful to women suffering from Fistula. “Please if you are suffering from Fistula seek treatment at nearest health facility,” she urged.
Bungoma Governor, Wycliffe Wangamati, lauded the partners for the noble move that he said would restore the dignity of the suffering women.
Speaking during the exercise, Dr Ademola Olajide, a representative for UNFPA in Kenya, said an Obstetric Fistula occurs when a mother has a prolonged obstructed labor but doesn’t have access to emergency medical care.
Dr Olajide added, “During prolonged labor, the mothers contractions continually push the baby’s head against her pelvis and soft tissues caught between the baby’s head and her pelvic bone become compressed, restricting the normal flow of blood.”
If medication is not given urgently, the medic said, the victim will uncontrollably leak urine, stool or sometimes both for the rest of her life.
By Lydia Wafula
