(Mothers with a Heart for Ethiopia donates money to help women who are suffering from prolapse have a surgery to correct the condition. It’s a life-changing procedure done by two American ob-gyns volunteering their time in Soddo, Ethiopia.
A rural health clinic about 45 minutes away is one of the biggest sources of patients. We were fortunate enough to visit the Bucama Health Centre on our third day in Ethiopia during a trip in October 2019.
Here are three of the stories we heard. We hope the strength and resilience of these incredible women will encourage you to learn more about the prolapse project. )
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Felakekech, clinic manager
Felakekech is a force. That’s the word that immediately comes to mind when describing this powerhouse woman who helps to run the Bucama health clinic. Like many women, she wears many hats. She greets patients arriving at the hospital. She preps women for their appointments, translates their concerns, and takes information in the examining room alongside the doctors.
Felakekech helps to run the Bucama Health Centre in rural Ethiopia.
She sees the impact of prolapse surgery firsthand.
“You are saving their lives. God is sending you,” she told us.
She knows the realities of daily life for many patients. There is no soap, no running water to keep an infected area clean. There is little support in some families. Women are often confused and scared, not knowing what is happening to their bodies.
But after surgery, “they can live with their husbands, experience new life. They can go to church. They can dance. It’s a happy life,” Felakekech said.
We could see how her own heart was touched by the pain, resilience and strength of the women who are suffering or have suffered from prolapse.
In one particularly poignant interview, she paused while translating and told us how the pain and isolation can overtake women’s lives. One patient, unaware she could find help for her condition, bought a butcher knife with plans to take her own life. She just wanted to end her suffering.
Luckily, there are people like Felakekech working to empower rural Ethiopian women and connect them to lifesaving medical care and attention. Bucama has seen explosive growth in the past few years as the government intensifies its push to have everyone in the region connected with healthcare through twice-yearly checkups.
Last year, there were 8,500 patient visits projected in the annual plan. But the clinic outpaced its own statistics, with 10,095 visits.
This year, a whopping 20,427 are expected.
Despite all the work she is doing on the frontlines, Felakekech wouldn’t end our interview without effusive thanks.
“Thank you, the program is changing their lives,” she said of donations from Mothers with a Heart for Ethiopia.
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Dedene, awaiting surgery
When Dedene told Dr. Nate Ross about the prolapse that’s been plaguing her for six years, she began to cry.
“I can’t go to church like this,” she sobbed. “It is smelling.”
Dedene, a rural Ethiopian woman who is a candidate for prolapse surgery.
She’s rail thin.
She walked to the clinic without any shoes. It took hours, partially because of the distance and also because she stopped several times to sit down and gain enough strength to continue. Her heart was beating fast during that journey, she said.
Her husband left her for another woman when he saw the way her uterus, bladder and rectum had pushed their way out of her body, left suspended between her legs.
At church, worshippers in the rows around her move away because of the odour caused by the prolapse, and because she cannot control her urine.
She has three living children but only one lives with her.
Dedene feels so hopeless, she told us it would be better if she would die. “But God is not taking me.”
We are absolutely overjoyed that your donations may help Dedene regain her life through surgery.
We also learned about another simple tool that can be used in prolapse cases.
We knew Dr. Mark was, in some cases, using pessaries – a sort of flexible ring that is inserted into the vagina to hold up the uterus or other organs that have slipped down or out of place.
It can be a good solution, especially for women with only a minor prolapse or those who wish to have more children. Even severe prolapse cases can be helped by a pessary. And in cases like Dedene’s, where it wasn’t possible to have surgery right away, the pessary can provide much-needed relief, allowing them to sit, stand and walk normally.
Dr. Nate and Dr. Mark also use pessaries in cases where a woman is suffering from ulcers or infections. The ring is covered in estrogen to help get their tissues back into a healthy state and ready for surgery.
Surgery is a more permanent solution, of course, especially for women like Dedene who are past menopause.
We are exceedingly grateful that options exist for woman like Dedene. Thank you for your support to help link these women with the medical care that brings them a new chance at life.
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Meselech, a surgery success
“Look at me now, this is new life,” she told us, four years after surgery to correct the prolapse that had left her reproductive organs dangling out of her body and made simple daily tasks an impossible feat.
“I am like a newborn baby.”
Meselech, a woman who had her prolapse corrected by surgery nearly 4 years ago.
We can only imagine the relief Meslech must have felt after her prolapse was corrected by Dr. Mark Karnes, an ob-gyn at Soddo Christian Hospital in Soddo, Ethiopia.
She had suffered from the condition for four years before she had surgery.
Her prolapse, a severe case, kept her from going to church, walking to the market, or having sex with her husband.
Her organs had fallen so far they were outside the body, and became infected and ulcerated. When she would walk, she spread her legs as far as possible to keep her inner thighs from rubbing painfully against her uterus, hanging outside her vagina.
When we chatted with Meselech, she was blunt:
“Before surgery, I was crying, always crying. Now that God has helped me, I am happy. Now it is a good life. I can go to church, market. Anywhere I want, I can go,” she told us.
“I am singing, I can dance. I am a new woman,” she went on.
You can’t argue with those results.
And even better, Meselech has taken it upon herself to educate others in her rural Ethiopian village. This is incredibly unusual, in part because Ethiopian culture is incredibly private. Many woman who suffer from prolapse don’t even tell their families what’s wrong.
But this mother of six isn’t afraid of stereotypes or stigma.
“I told people at the market, relatives at church. I am teaching people,” she said, telling us that so many mothers with prolapse are still out there confused, isolated and in pain.
“People are asking me ‘how did you do it? What did you do to get well?’ That is my work. My whole life, I will tell people.’”
Meselech, we salute you. Thank you for using your newfound knowledge to bring new life to your sisters.