Votoka “Rise Up” Team

Our partners in Angola have created the Votoka (“Rise Up”) team, which trains nurses in obstetric fistula, conducts awareness lectures in communities, finds fistula patients, and provides patient care support. In multiple locations, the team conducts training for healthcare professionals and information sessions for community members. Ambassadors, who are mostly trained volunteers, identify new patients and help spread the news of campaigns. Campaigns offer a holistic approach, encompassing education on prevention and patient care, treatment, and trauma care. The reintegration team offers recovering women empowerment through training in hand-sewing skills.

Casa de Esperança “Waiting Home”

Adjacent to our partner hospital in Kalukembe, Angola, the Casa de Esperança (“Waiting Home”) provides expectant mothers with a place to wait during their final month of pregnancy. Waiting on-site gives women access to timely, quality care for any complications during late pregnancy, labor, delivery, or after birth. Care could include ultrasounds, treatment of existing medical conditions such as malaria, assistance with premature birth, or cesarean delivery. All of these interventions improve outcomes for mother and baby and help prevent fistula before it occurs.

The Casa de Esperança has individual patient rooms surrounding an open courtyard with a kitchen. Patients and their accompanying family members can safely gather in the courtyard to cook, sing, participate in classes, and encourage one another. Future plans include a “jango” (a covered open-air meeting space) just outside the home so that community members can also benefit from talks and classes offered by hospital staff.

Aftercare Program

Women who have suffered from fistula often face additional hardships, usually having been abandoned by their husbands and families and feeling unable to return to their villages. Left to provide for themselves, they are deeply disadvantaged because of their lack of formal education and skills training.

The Aftercare program, administered by our partners at Central Evangelical Medical Center (CEML) in Lubango, Angola, empowers women recovering from fistula surgery with craft skills, gardening lessons, literacy/numeracy education, and teaching in local languages. Funds from our supporters provide materials and staff compensation for the program so patients can participate at no cost.

Women who arrive for fistula surgery withdrawn or angry are welcomed to CEML by other patients and brought into a community of peers. Fistula patients often stay connected to CEML over the course of a year or more to have additional surgeries and care. During this time, women can learn to read and write in their local languages, learn to sew or make jewelry, and share their talents with others. Crafts produced by the patients are sold at a local mall as well as on our very own Purchase with a Purpose page! The women return home empowered with skills to support themselves and a new sense of hope and joy to become active participants in community life.