We Walked with the Women
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Lessons from A Walk to Beautiful
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Carrie Ngongo, Senior Program Associate for EngenderHealth's Fistula Care Project, moderated post-film Q&A |
Future Choices Hosts Private Screening of A Walk to Beautiful
Advocates for women's reproductive rights joined Future Choices in January 2010 for a by-invitation-only screening of the 2009 Emmy-winning film, A Walk to Beautiful about obstetric fistula. Predictably the audience was moved and uplifted by the film, which inspired a lively exchange of questions and observations adeptly handled by Carrie Ngongo.
To View the full video of the screening of A Walk to Beautiful please go here.
Introducing the post-film discussion Carrie Ngongo recapped the strategies used in the Fistula Care Project to deal with obstetric fistula treatment, prevention and community reintegration. The Fistula Care Project is an EngenderHealth-led program funded by USAID (United States Agency for International Development).
Topics Carrie covered in dialogue with the audience included:
- Obstetric fistula, a debilitating complication of childbirth, persists in many developing countries. The Fistula Care Project, a five-year, $70 million global project in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, is helping to strengthen fistula management and prevention services worldwide.
- There are three different kinds of genital fistula:Fistula Survivors' Stories
Sifa
Caroline- Obstetric fistula is the most common but is found most typically in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia where obstetric services are lacking.
- Traumatic fistula results from particularly violent sexual assault and is all-too-frequently seen in areas where rape is used as a weapon of war.
- Iatrogenic fistula, which occurs as a result of surgical error, is rare in the U.S. but unfortunately less rare in developing countries where obstetric surgeons are poorly trained.
- Counseling is absolutely critical for a woman who has been surgically repaired with an emphasis on the need:
- to abstain from sexual relations for at least three months after surgery;
- to make use of appropriate contraceptives to space her future pregnancies; and
- to be sure to get herself to the hospital for a c-section in all future deliveries.
- The need to involve men in prevention initiatives is essential so that they understand that pregnancy and childbirth is not just a woman's issue but rather a family issue in which they both have an important role to play.
| Carrie shares some stories about women whose husbands are supportive. |
MORE about obstetric fistula
Fistula Care Project
The Fistula Care Project is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by USAID and managed by EngenderHealth.
- The Project works to address the enormous backlog of women awaiting life-altering fistula repair, that they receive timely and quality care from trained providers.
- At the same time, it works to remove barriers to emergency obstetric care that lead to fistula in the first place, so that women in labor get to the right place with the right services at the right time.
- The project is supporting a network of facilities offering a continuum of services, from emergency obstetric care, referrals, and family planning to complex fistula repairs and advanced surgical training.
- In addition, the Fistula Care Project gathers data from other USAID-supported projects that work on fistula.
More about the Fistula Care Project
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“The award winning feature-length documentary A Walk to Beautiful tells the poignant stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from obstetric fistula and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. While exposing us to the horrors of the entirely preventable affliction, obstetric fistula, the documentary film uplifts our souls with its gentle revelations of the compassionate courage of the medical staff at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital as they lead Ayehu, Almaz, Zewdie, Yenenesh and Wubete from the depths of despair to a new empowerment. [See further: http://www.walktobeautiful.com/]
Future Choices hosted a private screening of A Walk to Beautiful which is recapped in the March 2010 TV episode, moderated by Carrie Ngongo of EngenderHealth.
In the course of our journey across Ethiopia during the film we learned:
- what causes obstetric fistula to occur.
- that it is an affliction of poor, uneducated women.
- what happens to women afflicted with obstetric fistula.
- that obstetric fistula is fully preventable.
- that usually fistula repair is an inexpensive, relatively simple medical procedure for trained physicians.
- that the UNFPA, EngenderHealth, Worldwide Fistula Fund, the Fistula Foundation are among the NGOs expending extraordinary efforts to help save women from obstetric fistula.
- that Nicolas Kristof's 2003 OpEd column about the founder of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital draws a poignant picture of women who have been rescued from obstetric fistula.
- that we all have a role in spreading the word and raising awareness about this issue.
When is Future Choices aired in your community?
See Local TV schedule for time and channel in each participating community in Westchester County.
More about Carrie Ngongo
At Future Choices' private screening of A Walk to Beautiful Carrie Ngongo of EngenderHealth picks up where the film ends, drawing from her intensive experience working with African women debilitated by obstetric fistula. Carrie has won accolades from Nicholas Kristof for her essay in response to Half the Sky in which she as a first-time mother compares her own joyous experience of childbirth to the adversity faced by less fortunate women in the developing world.
Carrie is senior program associate on the Fistula Care Project, a USAID-funded project managed by EngenderHealth. She serves as Fistula Care’s liaison for colleagues and partners in Ethiopia...|MORE
This page last updated April 18, 2010 17:22 .