Monrovia, Liberia - President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has launched a new Fistula Unit at St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, while also promising to rehabilitate the stretch of road leading from Tubman Boulevard to the hospital.
According to an Executive Mansion release, President Sirleaf said it was an honor for her to launch the “Stop Fistula Project” and to inaugurate the new Fistula Unit at St. Joseph’s. “With a fully equipped and well-staffed unit, St Joseph’s becomes the latest hospital site in the country where fistula is treated. The fact that 1,493 rape cases were reported in Montserrado County alone last year, shows the importance of having a Fistula Unit here at St. Joseph’s,” the President said.
The Unit will assist young women who suffer from obstructed labor, and offer free surgical treatment for women with fistula, to repair cases that could not be prevented. The project is sponsored by the Women for Africa Foundation spearheaded by its President and a true friend of Liberia, Senora Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega.
Speaking further, President reflected on her first meeting with Senora Fernandez de la Vega in Madrid, in 2008, during a women’s meeting while she served as Vice President of Spain. The President recalled her passion for women, generally, and for women in Africa in particular, and said she was not surprised that the Women for Africa Foundation, which de la Vega heads, is undertaking the Fistula Project in Liberia.
The Liberian leader thanked the Director of the St. Joseph’s, Rev. Brother Patrick Nshamdze, for allowing the hospital to host the Fistula Unit, and the visiting doctors for their selfless and voluntary service in Liberia. “Liberians appreciate you very much,” she told them.
President Sirleaf expressed satisfaction that she was able to see for herself some of the beneficiaries of the project who are currently being treated at the hospital, and decried the alarming incidences of rape in the country.
She also reminded the rapists that the victims of their actions could be their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters who need their care and protection. “Yesterday, I launched the 2013 Anti-Rape Campaign at the Gender Ministry. This heinous violation of children is on the increase, and it’s got to stop,” the Liberia leader stressed. She indicated that many of the 2,493 cases of the rape of young girls reported in Liberia in 2012 will suffer from obstructed labor or end up as victims of fistula because their underdeveloped bodies are not prepared for childbearing.
President Sirleaf expressed satisfaction that the project has come about through Women for Africa Foundation’s collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Development, which stands in the vanguard for the protection and empowerment of Liberia’s girls and young women; and with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, which initiated government’s obstetric fistula program in 2007, and now operates project sites in 11 counties.
She pointed out that if young women are to get help quickly, it is important that the word gets out that, here in Montserrado County, St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital is the place to go if a young woman is having problems delivering her baby, or if she is suffering from fistula. President Sirleaf pledged government’s continuous support for the initiative and lauded the efforts of the Women for Africa Foundation given the many demands upon Liberia’s limited resources.
Speaking earlier, the President of the Women for Africa Foundation, Senora Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega, told the gathering that when she visited Liberia some four years ago, the reason for doing so was for women. At the time, women demanded their rights in the face of discrimination, and physical safety in the face of violence. Women have and their contribution to peace in the face of conflicts that have hit so many countries in the world ruled by men, she said.
Senora Fernández de la Vega pointed out that she was here again for women, and to make more demands for women’s rights, attention, respect, dignity and full citizenship for women. “This is because today we are presenting a project to eradicate one of the most virulent afflictions affecting women’s health, dignity, rights, respect and future (obstetric fistula),” she stressed, adding, “Fistula is an ailment that is synonymous not only with suffering, but also with isolation. It means not only illness, but rejection.”
She expressed happiness at finding herself at a women’s interest program with two female Ministers of the Liberian Government and the President of Liberia, sharing their commitment to the goal of the Fistula Project and putting their strengthen and stamina, fuelled with hope, at the service of the women of Liberia.
Senora Fernández de la Vega indicated that fistula was chosen as a priority project for the Foundation because she realized that many people around the world do not know what fistula is and that over 2 million women suffer from the ailment across the globe. She attributed the high rate of fistula among women and girls to rape and unprepared childbearing. She told the gathering that her organization is in Liberia to make women who suffer from fistula visible, to rebuild their bodies and their lives.
She thanked St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital and Brother Patrick, in particular, for helping them establish the unit, and mentioned that the Fistula Project will soon have its own building within the hospital. She also thanked the four Spanish surgeons who are here to begin the “Stop Fistula Project.” Concluding, she declared Liberia a good example of what can be achieved when women gain their voice and speech, when women become leaders and begin to be recognized and contribute.
Welcoming President Sirleaf and other guests earlier, the Director of St. Joseph’s, Rev. Brother Nshamdze, said the Fistula Project comes as the hospital celebrates its 50th anniversary, adding that the project will restore the dignity of affected women and girls.
He thanked the Liberian Government for raising the subsidy of the hospital from US$100,000 to US$250, 000 in the 2012/2013 fiscal budget, and pleaded with the President for more assistance. He assured donors that they have found a reliable partner through the hospital.
Also speaking, Dr. John Mulbah, Head of the Liberia Fistula Project, explained circumstances that lead to fistula and the initiation of the Liberia Fistula Project. He thanked the donor, the Government and the Catholic Hospital for their support to the Fistula Project.
For her part, Gender and Development Minister Julia Duncan Cassell said the launch represented a landmark in Liberia’s progress towards addressing and tackling the issue of women and girls. She described fistula as a gender issue and attributed its growing rate to illiteracy. She promised the provision of special skills to survivors of fistula to make them economically viable and socially integrated. “The Gender Ministry is involved because fistula is not just a medical condition, but an issue of stigmatization and discrimination,” Minster Duncan Cassell concluded.
Archbishop Lewis Ziegler, in his remarks, thanked President Sirleaf for the commitment to rebuild the road leading to the hospital compound.