Vesico-Vagina Fistula (VVF) is a terribly dehumanizing condition caused by an obstructed labor. Many women with VVF are from poor backgrounds. Causes include early marriage, negligence, lack of antenatal care during pregnancy, and ignorance. Many VVF victims are treated like outcasts, especially by their immediate family, even after they have gone through surgical repair. Even after these women have been treated physically through surgical operation, the emotional and mental trauma which follows is not attended to. They stay or hang around the hospital and some enter into prostitution to sustain themselves.
The following is some of the progress made in 2006:
- Fifty young women were trained in our three VVF centers in Nigeria
- Fifty sewing machines were donated to the young women who attended the course
- Five other sewing machines were donated to one of the centers
- Weekly allowance was paid to 40 women for a three-month tailoring course
- A new VVF vocational training center and a hostel were built, worth US$57,000 in Zaria