Dear Friends,
Today is the last day of the GlobalGiving Girls Fund Campaign, recognizing and celebrating amazing women and girls across the globe. Thank you so much to all who have given in support of our efforts to empower women and girls recovering from the traumatic birth injury obstetric fistula. If you have not yet had a chance to give, you can do that here for women like Sauda.
When Sauda went into labor with her third child at home, much time passed without any progress, so her husband rushed her to the nearest local hospital. At the hospital, she was examined by a nurse who told her to be patient as she would deliver ‘anytime’.
“I then waited for nine hours without being attended,” Sauda says. “I became so tired and weak. I could not feel any movement of my child. After those nine hours the nurse didn’t think she had capacity to help me anymore and gave me a referral to another hospital. When I arrived at the next hospital, the doctor told me to wait because there was another patient in the operating room.”
After more waiting, Sauda was taken into surgery where her baby was delivered via Caesarean section. Tragically, it was too late: her baby had already passed away. Sauda lay unconscious in Intensive Care for four days. “When I woke up I asked the nurse, where is my child? It was then that I found out it was stillborn.”
The heartbreak of losing her child was only compounded when Sauda realized she was leaking urine steadily. The doctors told her she was living with an obstetric fistula. “When they mentioned to me that I had fistula, CCBRT came into my mind,” Sauda says. “I remembered hearing that they treated fistula, but I did not memorize the numbers to call.”
One day, Sauda’s brother-in-law – who had been to CCBRT Disability Hospital to get a prosthetic device for his child – told them he had the phone number of a doctor who worked at CCBRT. He made the call, and after three months - once she had recovered from her C-section – Sauda visited CCBRT for treatment.
Today, Sauda has received her surgery and is recovering well.
Sauda wants to help other women and girls access the same care she did. “I would like to be an ambassador and explain to other fistula victims what I have gone through, so that they are aware of fistula and where to get free treatment. They should not feel discriminated against and should not isolate themselves from society.”
Thanks to your generosity, and the generosity of like minded partners, to date CCBRT has served over 6,600 women and girls with comprehensive, holistic treatment for obstetric fistula offered free of charge. Through the efforts of the team at The Mabinti Centre, 100 women recovering from treatment have been given the tools they need to become entrepreneurs, rebuilding their lives after the trauma of fistula. And most importantly, we are able to equip women like Sauda to be ambassadors for women and girls with fistula in their own communities.
Thank you for your support!
The Kupona Team
Dear Friends,
Happy International Women’s Day! Today, we come together to honor the strength, power and contributions of women all over the world.
I have been the Manager of The Mabinti Centre for the last 11 years. In that time, it has been my honor to witness the courage and resilience of the women we serve as they overcame the devastation of obstetric fistula. Our vocational training course empowers women with the skills and confidence to start their own business and become financially independent. As they learn to sew, print, design and manage finances, they also forge new friendships and bravely tackle the trauma this preventable, treatable disability leaves behind. I am proud to walk with them on this journey, and to watch each class graduate with confidence and the tools and knowledge to start afresh.
For our trainees and graduates, this training means a future filled with hope, instead of worry.
When one of our graduates, Janiah, went into labor, the doctors saw her baby was in distress and delivered her baby via Caesarean section. After leaving the hospital Janiah began leaking urine. Her doctors told there had been a complication with the C-section that left her with an obstetric fistula. “I had never heard of [fistula]. I was in shock,” she said. “It was difficult to accept that this had happened.”
After being referred to CCBRT for free fistula treatment, Janiah heard about a place where former CCBRT fistula patients could go to learn crafting, business and other life skills: The Mabinti Centre. She was accepted into our program, and learned sewing, batik, beading, crochet, and entrepreneurship with sessions on budgeting, communications, and marketing. Janiah graduated with the necessary skills to launch her own business a year later.
She soon started to sell her products in her neighborhood and around Dar es Salaam, crediting her Mabinti training as inspiration for the new business venture. Janiah said with confidence “I don’t have a worry. If my husband is gone, I can support my family.”
After her graduation, Janiah went back to the fistula ward to speak with new patients. She told them, “I was like you, and one day you’ll be like me. Everyone who goes to CCBRT will be okay”.
Since 2007, we have trained over 100 women like Janiah, each with their own story and their own challenges. Almost 75% of graduates now run their own business or have a job in the industry. Together, we have transformed The Mabinti Centre into a thriving social business.
This International Women’s Day, join me in celebrating the success of the women who have graduated from our program over the years, and show your support for the women who will follow them. We are set to welcome our next class of trainees this April: a new group of women looking to rebuild their lives through entrepreneurship.
Thanks to our friends at GlobalGiving, every donation up to $250 made through our GlobalGiving project today will receive a 30% match while funds last.* Your donations will help us to train these women as we build up their confidence and skills in a supportive, safe environment.
We hope you will stand with us by making a donation today, and sharing the campaign with your friends and family.
Asanteni sana (thank you very much),
Katia Geurts
Manager, The Mabinti Centre
Dear Friends,
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, we will recognize and celebrate amazing woman across the globe. Today, I want to introduce you to Lina, a woman who embodies the strength and resilience that we see in so many of the women and girls we serve.
When Lina was 15-years-old, she became pregnant with her first child. When she went into labor, Lina endured three days with little progress. On the third day she was rushed to a nearby health center. The doctors there could not assist her, and Lina blacked out from pain and exhaustion.
“I became unconscious,” Lina says. ”I just woke up and found myself in the regional hospital in a bed. I asked the nurses, ‘where is my child?’” Tragically, Lina’s child was stillborn, and Lina began leaking urine from an obstetric fistula – a hole in the birth canal that developed as a result of her traumatic delivery. Obstetric fistula is completely preventable and treatable, but so many women and girls do not know what it is or understand what is happening to them.
Lina lived with this debilitating condition and chronic incontinence for six years. She survived horrific abuse at the hands of her boyfriend as he berated her for her condition. One day, he struck her on the head with a machete while chasing her from the home they shared. Injured and heartbroken, Lina hid in the bush until her uncle found her and brought her to her mother’s home where she lived isolated and excluded from her community.
Help finally came in the form of a CCBRT fistula ambassador. The ambassador referred Lina to CCBRT for treatment, and last month she received free, comprehensive fistula surgery and rehabilitation at CCBRT’s Disability Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Now 21-years-old, Lina has recovered from surgery, is no longer leaking and is excited about her future as she looks to the next chapter of life.
We need your help to empower women like Lina.
Ways to get involved
Your donations will support vocational training for women like Lina at the Mabinti Centre, our socioeconomic empowerment program for women recovering from fistula. For eleven years, Mabinti has equipped women recovering from fistula with the tools and confidence they need to start their own businesses, and regain confidence and independence. Almost 75% of Mabinti’s graduates own a tailoring business or continue to work in the industry, earning their own income. The Centre is a supportive environment where women like Lina can recover from a debilitating injury, learn practical business skills, and build a brighter future for themselves.
Your support will be instrumental in helping amazing women like Lina rebuild their lives after treatment. Together, we can set them on the path to healing, empowerment, and independence.
With gratitude,
Abbey Kocan
Executive Director
*Donations will be matched up to a value of $250.
Dear Friends,
2017 was a year of challenges. For many of us, the health, wellbeing and fundamental safety of our global community has rarely, if ever, felt so under threat. There is no denying that the challenges we face in achieving our global goals are complicated, and will not be solved overnight.
Yet that hasn't deterred our team or this community: because 2017 was our biggest year yet.
Thanks to the generosity of our partners and donors like you we were able to mobilize more than $1.5 million in financial and in-kind resources in 2017 to support the continuation of transformative healthcare programs in Tanzania.
That means we were able to deliver high-quality surgeries and rehabilitative care to more people in vulnerable communities. We trained healthcare workers to save the lives of mothers and newborns, and made investments in equipment and systems needed to deliver quality care to the hundreds of people seeking critical healthcare services at our partner hospital, CCBRT, every day. This number doesn't include the hours of advice, and hands-on event support our volunteers and friends also gave so generously. Thank you.
As we enter 2018, we are full of hope and drive. This year, CCBRT has launched a new, five-year strategy, and their vision for the future is ambitious: for CCBRT to be the leading provider of accessible, specialized health services in Africa.
At Kupona, we’ve long believed in CCBRT’s ability to make this happen. They are already a global leader in disability services, one of the largest providers of obstetric fistula treatment worldwide, and a key partner to the Government of Tanzania in the fight to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes. We have no doubt that, in the not-too-distant future, their vision will become a reality. We’re excited to be a part of the journey, and we hope that you are, too.
You have a critical role to play. Donors like you are crucial to ensuring we can deliver quality care to vulnerable people every day. That’s why, this year, we are working harder to make your donations go further.
We’re going to work smarter, and give you more opportunities to capitalize on matches and prize funds. In 2017, through our partnership with GlobalGiving, our community unlocked over $3,000 in bonus funds and prizes through Bonus Days, competitions and matching campaigns, which is the equivalent of 60 additional healthcare workers trained.
This year, we want to build on this success, and do even more to amplify your impact. Stay tuned to our GlobalGiving reports and social media through the year for the latest news on available matches & contests.
With renewed conviction, and the momentum of our best year yet propelling us forward, we are determined to achieve bold gains for the people and communities of Tanzania. Will you join us?
Say “yes” with your recurring or one-time donation, today.
Dear Friends,
In just a few short weeks, you have given over $16,000 to provide life changing healthcare to the people we serve in Tanzania through our partner, CCBRT. We are so grateful for your support. Thank you.
With just a few weeks left in 2017, we wanted to share an update from the people who translate your generosity into impact. Check out this video to hear a Happy Holidays message from CCBRT’s CEO, Erwin Telemans and Ruth, one of CCBRT's Prosthetist/Orthotists.
“It’s not too late.”
Every gift you give changes lives. It’s that simple. Whether you are training healthcare workers, supporting critical equipment purchases, or providing life changing procedures for children with disabilities, your support matters for people just like Emmanuel.
For two years, Emmanuel struggled to read the blackboard in his primary (elementary) school. “I could not see what was written on the board and sometimes I could feel pain in my left eye. I communicated this to the teacher. She told me she would one day take me to the hospital. My parents and my siblings noticed that I was developing this big white spot on my left eye which was increasing little by little. My fellow students asked me what it was but I had no answer because I did not know what it was.”
When Emmanuel arrived at our partner hospital, CCBRT, he was diagnosed with cataract, the leading cause of blindness in Tanzania. Cataract can be corrected with a simple surgery, as long as the child has access to a pediatric surgeon: a rarity in Tanzania. Luckily, CCBRT Disability Hospital is one of three facilities in the country with the skilled staff and equipment to give Emmanuel the treatment he needed. He was scheduled for surgery the very next day. His brother shared, “Emmanuel was a little bit afraid before going into the theater (operating room) for surgery but we are both so happy the surgery went well. I believe he will perform better in class after this surgery. Before, his handwriting was so disorganized and at times I would compare what his fellow students had written in class and what he had written and it was clear to me that he could not see very well. I believe he will do better now.”
As he sat in recovery, Emmanuel remembered his sight before the surgery “I could not see clearly; it was a bit cloudy’’. With a very wide smile he says, ‘’I am happy now my sight has improved. I can see very clearly. I would like to be a teacher in the future. And I will teach Swahili as a subject because I like it.”
This is the impact of your generosity. Last year, thanks to your support, CCBRT served over 65,000 people just like Emmanuel. Thank you for being a part of Emmanuel’s journey, and the journeys of so many others.
As Ruth says in the video, it’s not too late to make that difference to somebody’s life today.
Thank you so much for your support this year. You are the driving force behind this life changing work, and we are so grateful. Happy holidays to you and yours.
Warm wishes,
Abbey
P.S., Set up a new recurring monthly gift via our GlobalGiving project before December 31st, and GlobalGiving will match* your first month’s donation 100%!
*GlobalGiving will provide matches for donations up to $200. Recurring donations must be active for 3 months before matching funds are distributed.
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