Our Story
Our Approach
To ensure our impact is effective ,
- We focus on delivering fistula repair surgery and post operative care.
- Raising awareness through the availability of resources and educational campaigns that influence the beliefs and attitudes of such communities positively.
- Community engagements that foster collective change through various stakeholders in the community.
Fistula Repairs
Our main goal is to help these women by providing free surgeries to heal their fistula. We work closely with dedicated doctors and local partners to provide high quality life transforming care to many women as possible.
We support treatment at difference fistula centers across the country.
How We Do It:
THE POOL EFFORT TECHNIQUE
Due to the high demand for fistula surgeons and their low supply in relation to the high number of women suffering from Obstetric Fistula, we came up with a method that would help us achieve more within a short period of time tagged – “The Pool Effort”.
In this method, we enlisted the help of local fistula clinics that helped in providing information about women suffering from Obstetric Fistula and the required facilities for carrying out these surgeries.
Patients with fistula can undergo a surgery to repair the hole in their bladder or rectum. The treatment cures up to 90% of obstetric fistula patients. With support from donors like you, we help repair more women, giving them a chance to live normal lives.
Fistula is easily preventable. But it still happens every day in underdeveloped countries across the world.
An estimated 2 million women live with fistula, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia and the Arab world.
While fistula is obviously a medical condition, there are numerous socio-cultural factors that both dispose women to the condition and which also result from a life with obstetric fistula.
Firstly, fistula primarily affects young, poor women with little or no access to maternal health services
Medical consequences: incontinence, infection, and possible infertility
Social consequences: isolation, abandonment, stigma, vulnerability
We aim to bring succor to these women by providing for them free repair surgeries by taking the following steps:
- Call to women suffering from Obstetric Fistula within the region through various traditional and non-traditional means of information dissemination
- Assessment of the women who indicate interest
- Medical tests, consultations and interviews with the women
- Appointments with doctors
- Provision of transportation, feeding and accommodation for the women
- Free surgeries performed
- Follow up assessment of the surgery
- Close observation of the women after surgeries
- Discharge of women who are certified to be in good health by the surgeons and doctors
- Provision of transportation and micro-finance loans for the women to integrate them back into the society
Awareness Creation
We use the aid of storytelling, film-making and data/research conducted to share the challenges and opportunities in global maternal health.
Furthermore, we create original, accessible content, tools and resources for people to share and raise awareness in their own communities.
Community Engagement
Extended Hands Foundation inspires people to use their voices to advocate for quality, respectful, equitable maternity care for all.
We collaborate closely with key decision makers, policy makers, influencers, practitioners and community members to identify key maternal health issues, gender-based violence and implement effective strategies for change.
