KARACHI, Pakistan, Apr 13, 2012 (IPS) :
As is the custom in the remote mountain
village of Kohadast in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, Bano was
married off as soon as she reached adolescence, at 15, and was pregnant the
following year.
There being no healthcare facility near
Kohadast, Bano did not receive antenatal care and no one thought there would be
complications. But, events were to prove different.
After an extended labour lasting three
days, Bano delivered a dead baby. "I never saw the colour of my son’s eyes
or his hair. I never held him once to my bosom," recalls Bano. Unknown to
her the prolonged labour had taken a toll on Bano’s young body. She had
developed a fistula caused by the baby’s head pressing hard against the lining
of the birth canal and tearing into the walls of her rectum and the bladder.
A week after the childbirth ordeal,
Bano realised she was always wet with urine and reeking of faecal matter.
"I was passing urine and stools together."
Bano’s family attributed her condition
to fate, her father refusing to visit "due to the bad odour coming from
me." However, through those trying times, Khan stood by his young wife and
sought medical help.
After Bano spent a year in a
perpetually "wet and stinky" condition, her husband finally
discovered a hospital in Karachi specialising in treating fistula and other
conditions related to reproductive health. "I smell nice now and it’s all
because my husband wanted me to get well," said Bano, who may have spent
many more years in a miserable state if not for the treatment at Koohi Goth.
Kenya, 2010: Human Rights
Watch
Kwamboka became pregnant at age 13 while in primary
school, developed fistula, and lived with it for seven years before hearing on
the radio about a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) funded fistula repair
camp offering free surgeries. She told us, “I didn’t know anything about family
planning or condoms. I just went once and got pregnant.” Despite some
government efforts to introduce sexuality education in upper primary and
secondary schools, its teaching remains awry given the lack of ownership ( not part
of the official syllabus) thus lack of time allocation.
Malindi
Kenya, April 2012: M. Mwaila
13 girls in upper primary in a school in Watamu are
currently pregnant! Given their immature bodies, all face the danger of
developing fistula at childbirth especially considering the poor healthcare and
rights awareness within the community, poverty levels, as well as fear of being
reprimanded by healthcare workers leading to lack of access to antenatal care. According
to a local CBO working on GBV issues, one of the girls said lack of sanitary
towels was the major reason girls engaged in sex. Rose (not her real name)
intimated that her mother has no money to buy pads. Due to culture, Rose cannot
approach her dad because it is taboo for a girl to discuss menses with her
father. “Our alternative is to approach men who have cash. They give us money
for pads and we pay back in kind – offer sexual favours”.
