Fistula survivor delivers hope

Dirib Demeke (40) is married with 4 children. She lives with her family in Hagerehiwot village, 67 miles from World Vision’s Alamata Area Program office in the Tigray region. She delivered two children at home using Traditional Birth Attendants. Her third pregnancy was different.

After 24 hours in labor, Dirib had drained every bit of her energy. Desperate and afraid, her husband, Abreha Ayalew (55) asked his neighbors for help to take Dirib to the Makale Hospital, 131 miles away. Villagers instantly gathered supplies and started the long trip. During the journey and in excruciating pain, Dirib’s water broke, triggering a destructive delivery. “A stillborn baby came out of my womb and surfaced on the wooden stretcher,” Dirib said. She cried for hours and fell back into hallucination. Her carriers turned around and rushed her home.

Dejected, Dirib was unaware that she was developing an obstetric fistula. Soon she started experiencing urinary incontinence. When she divulged her secret to Abreha, they cried together. The smell of her urine soaked clothes, bed sheets, and mattress filled their home. Dirib burned incense to try and overcome the stench but it didn’t help.

Eventually, she shunned all visitors. Abreha, carried the dirty clothes one and a half hours to the Marsa River to do the laundry and draw water. Neighbors who used the same water source complained about the laundry that Abreha brought.

Busy with house chores, unusual for village husbands; Abreha stopped farming to care for Dirib and their two children. Succumbed to hopelessness and seeing the challenge that Abreha faced, Dirib suggested to end their marriage without prejudice but he declined. “I still love you and cannot afford to desert you at such trying time,” he told her.

One day Abreha learned about World Vision and their efforts to ensure mothers and children receive access to health care. Abreha told Dirib about it. The news rekindled her hope and her faded smile began to return on her face. Abreha took Dirib to the Makale Fistula Hospital. She was admitted, treated for fistula and received an operation to repair her damaged body parts.

She spent three months in the hospital experiencing healing. Upon leaving, the hospital wrote its telephone number on her registration card so that she could call an ambulance, should she ever need to make the long journey again. World Vision had donated the ambulance to the hospital. “Had there been such service then, my baby that I craved to hold, would have survived,” said Dirib remembering the ordeal.

Dirib feeding her youngest daughter, Habil 

Back in Hagerehiwot village, World Vision organized educational training for Dirib and nine other Safe Motherhood Ambassadors on the cause and prevention of fistula, antenatal and postnatal care. The Ambassadors began teaching their neighbors about safe delivery at health facilities and the side effects of harmful traditional practices that include traditional birth attendants, early marriage, and female genital mutilation. “After World Vision created awareness for pregnant and childbearing mothers, no mother has ever given birth at home,” said Dirib.

Thanks to the surgery and training, Dirib has since given birth to two healthy girls. Dirib is thankful for World Vision’s great works for women in the Alamata district. “World Vision has taken our shame off of us and made us part and parcel of the community,” she concluded.