WAHA - Women and Health Alliance International

4 WAHA staff members and collaborators participated in the event. Karachi, Pakistan

Four WAHA staff members and collaborators participated in the event, chairing sessions and delivering presentations. This conference was organised by the UNFPA.

“No more neglected. Dignity restored” was the slogan for the conference held last month at the Sheraton Hotel, in Karachi. This event aimed to raise awareness about fistula and to find more solutions to address obstetric fistula, a real plague for more than 150 000 Pakistani women according to UNFPA. A range of issues and strategies were considered from safe motherhood to social reintegration in order to support women suffering from fistula and to prevent new fistula cases. The conference underlined the close link between poverty and fistula, as one results from the other in the majority of cases.

Five of our team members were present; three fistula surgeons, Dr Mulu Muleta, Dr Lauri Romanzi and Dr Kees Waaldijk and WAHA’s Seretary-General Dr Sinan Khaddaj. While they were in Pakistan, our three fistula surgeons operated on 15 women who had all previously undergone unsuccessful surgeries. Local health workers were able to learn from them while they operated.

Following this conference, March 21^st has been designated as Fistula Awareness Day in Pakistan.

To find out more
To learn more about obstetric fistula.

see more