Make Motherhood Safe for Tanzanian Women

Today, we celebrate the fifth annual International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. In the past five years, we have been encouraged to see this preventable, treatable childbirth injury receiving much needed attention and life changing action implemented across the globe.

We’ve witnessed an increase in cases at our partner hospital in Tanzania, CCBRT, as women realized that their condition was treatable, broke their silence, and were referred for treatment. Thanks to your generous support, and the support of our partners including Fistula Foundation, Johnson & Johnson and Direct Relief, over 4,370 women and girls received comprehensive treatment for obstetric fistula at CCBRT and partner facilities across Tanzania in the last five years. With the continued support of our global community, that number will continue to climb.

Helping to carry the burden

Women and girls with obstetric fistula need a comprehensive team of health professionals – from surgeons to counselors – for holistic recovery. Surgery can address the physical symptoms, but many women have also faced emotional wounds from abandonment, rejection, and traumatic loss. That’s why our program invests in training for nurses like Damaris.

“I always do the night shift, so I have lots of time to talk.” In fact, talking is part of her job. Damaris is one of very few nurses in Tanzania trained in counseling – an essential service for women and girls navigating their recovery from obstetric fistula.

Before joining the team on CCBRT’s fistula ward, Damaris completed counseling training at a nearby university. She explains: “Working with women recovering from fistula is emotional. After training, I can be strong to help carry their burden and help them move past their painful experiences.”

Damaris adds, “Even if women are physically healed from fistula, without counseling they are only halfway toward recovery. They need to know that there is life after fistula. They can return to their communities. They can connect with friends and family. They can start their own business.”

“They are women just like me”

Damaris recalls one patient specifically, with a complicated case of two fistulae. Damaris noticed her patient’s distress; she didn’t talk to anyone and spent all of her time alone. In counseling, the woman began to open up about her experience of abandonment, telling Damaris, “I’m not even wanted by my own mother and father.” But Damaris knew her patient’s future was bright. “I told her that everything was possible, that she would go back happy. And that I would support her every day until she went home dry.” The woman made a full recovery, and months later, she and Damaris still talk on the phone.

What inspires Damaris’ commitment to the fistula ward? “They are women just like me. Their stories should be heard. Even though I can’t solve everything, I know that talking makes a big difference.”

There is great need for psychological support for women recovering from fistula in Tanzania. Damaris hopes that CCBRT can continue to train more fistula nurses in specialized counseling skills – “especially nurses on the night shift!”

Today, and every day, we celebrate the strength of the women and girls we are proud to serve, and the healthcare workers like Damaris who work so diligently to provide the respectful and comprehensive care their patients deserve. Thank you for the part you play through your generous support of our work.

With gratitude,

Abbey Kocan

P.S., A note on data protection

At Kupona Foundation, we’re proud of the global nature of our community. We take the privacy and security of our partners and supporters around the world very seriously, and the new regulations coming out of the European Union have given us an opportunity to make our policies clearer. We wanted to let you know that when you make a donation to Kupona Foundation through our projects listed on GlobalGiving.org we receive access to the data you share. We store this information in our secure constituent relationship management system, Little Green Light, for record keeping purposes only. We will never contact you outside of the GlobalGiving reports and acknowledgement systems unless you have given us permission to do so. If you’d like to read more about our privacy policies, including how we use Little Green Light, you can take a look at our latest privacy notice, which is permanently available on our website.

Dear Friends,

As I celebrate my third Mother’s Day as a mom, I remain incredibly grateful for the skilled healthcare providers who saved my son’s life the day he was born. If circumstances were different, my complicated delivery could have ended in tragedy. All too often, tragedy is the reality for families in Tanzania, as expectant mothers deliver in overcrowded facilities with under resourced staff.

One of the greatest obstacles to delivering high quality healthcare in Tanzania is a shortage of skilled, well-equipped healthcare workers.Tanzania alone can count on just 5.2 clinical health workers per 10,000 people: one fifth of the optimal ratio recommended by the World Health Organization. The health workforce that does exist has limited access to medical education and professional development.

With your support, our colleagues at CCBRT have been taking action to train and build the capacity of healthcare workers in Tanzania and further afield for many years. Until now, CCBRT’s efforts to strengthen the health workforce have been implemented in both CCBRT’s hospital in Dar es Salaam and at partner facilities across the country. They had no dedicated training facility, and no formalized central training program.

That’s all about to change.

Thanks to you, the Kupona community, and our partners Johnson & Johnson and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, we are celebrating the launch of the CCBRT Academy: a Centre for Excellence in Clinical Education.

“[The CCBRT Academy] is the realization of a vision that we have had for a long time,” says CCBRT’s Technical Advisor for Training and Capacity Building, Tilman Hannig. Through a unique combination of in-person training, online education and practical, hands-on experience, “it will allow us to better professionalize and develop our own staff, as well as health workers from beyond CCBRT.”

The Academy will be a learning environment of the highest quality to enrich educational experiences for the region’s healthcare heroes. We are excited to see the CCBRT Academy thrive, and address one of the most serious challenges facing the healthcare system in Tanzania. As Tilman says, “We have the space. Now we need to fill it with life.”

This Mother’s Day, we invite you to give today in celebration of mothers around the world, and the dedicated healthcare workers who help families to thrive. Today is your last chance to help us unlock prize funding, and to help Tilman and team fill the CCBRT Academy with life! Don't forget, GlobalGiving will award bonus prizes to the top five projects with the most unique donors before midnight tonight.

Thank you to the healthcare heroes, and to each of you, for helping make their work possible.

Wishing you a very happy Mother’s Day.  

Warm regards,
Abbey Kocan