Henry Jaoko (above) and Teresa Adamba are the Regional Representatives for the area of Migori. Teresa is married, while Henry just married Scholastica Aluoch due to the nature of his job, which is dealing with women.
Migori is such a wide area but Henry and Teresa have done an incredible job educating the community about fistula and finding patients with fistula. They have had many patients because they encourage each fistula survivor to bring in a new patient to go for treatment.
While One By One visited Migori, we met a young boy Abdul, who was 11 years old, and his mother, Shamimu. He is suffering from uncontrolled stool leakage and wishes he were a woman so we could him get treatment.
The trip extended to the Sibuoche area, which is about 30 kilometers from Migori on a rough, muddy and rocky road. In fact, we got a flat tire in the process.
Motorbike is the only means of transportation to Sibouche, and costs 300 ksh (about $3). Along the way, there are only 3 medical centers, which are Migori District Hospital, a dispensary after over 10 kilometers, and finally Sibuoche dispensary. This means that most people walk over 10 kilometers to get to a medical facility that does not have doctors and/or medical equipment. This puts pregnant women at a high risk of fistula.
The meeting was held at Sibuoche center and after teachings about fistula, we screening for fistula was done and we found 4 patients. Mongare and Habiba also spoke at a separate meeting of fistula survivors. They discovered that some of the women are not yet fully healed and advised them to do exercises and report back in January if no change occurs. Generally most of the survivors are doing well.
The survivors have formed a group, which comprises of 50 members (including 35 survivors, 10 men and 5 additional women). The group needs an office, room to sit, loans to start income generating projects, and a motorbike for transport. Mongare advised them to register as a Community Based Organization (CBO) with the Kenyan government, which will help them access loans.
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