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The poor are most vulnerable to developing obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal as a result of prolonged, obstructed labour, because they live too far from health facilities or cannot afford high-quality medical care during a complicated delivery.

They not only are likely to lose their child, they lose the ability to live a normal life. Because of the smell of constantly leaking urine, they are abandoned by friends and family and denied jobs, driving them deeper into poverty.

But obstetric fistula is preventable with timely, skilled care and largely treatable with reconstructive surgery.

You can help change a woman’s life by giving her back her future. Women who have had successful repairs are transformed physically and emotionally, no longer outcasts in society but survivors emerging from the shadows of stigma and shame.

They can have a second chance at life. Where there once was despair, dignity. And where there once was helplessness, hope.