U.S. Should Support Foreign Aid To Reduce Obstetric Fistulas, New York Times' Kristof Writes

November 3, 2009 — "Perhaps the most wretched people on this planet are those suffering obstetric fistulas," a childbirth injury "often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. He explains, "She suffers obstructed labor, has no access to a [caesarean] section and endures internal injuries that leave her incontinent -- steadily trickling urine and sometimes feces through her vagina." About three million to four million women and girls worldwide have obstetric fistulas, according to Kristof. A girl or woman with a fistula is "typically abandoned by her husband and forced to live by herself on the edge of her village, ... scorned, bewildered, humiliated and desolate, often feeling cursed by God," Kritsof says, adding, "They are the lepers of the 21st century."

He continues, "Just about the happiest thing that can happen to such a woman is an encounter" with Lewis Wall, an ob-gyn at Washington University in St. Louis who has "devoted his life to helping these most voiceless of the voiceless, promoting the $300 surgeries that repair fistulas and typically return the patients to full health." According to Kristof, Wall founded the Worldwide Fistula Fund in 1995 "and he has been campaigning tirelessly year after year to build a fistula hospital in West Africa." Now the hospital " is a reality," as Niger recently approved his plans for a facility that will be affiliated with an existing leprosy hospital run by the Christian missionary organization SIM, Kristof writes. The 40-bed hospital also will organize outreach efforts to improve maternal health, reduce maternal mortality rates, increase education and develop a microfinance program "to empower women more broadly," he adds.

The Niger hospital is "part of a grand vision to eradicate fistulas worldwide by building 40 such hospitals in the world's poorest countries," Kristof reports. The plan, created by Wall, would cost an estimated $1.5 billion over 12 years and would operate as a U.S. foreign aid program. Kristof notes that the proposal is "circulating" through the State Department, Congress and the White House, as well as among religious and aid organizations "that are lining up to back it." Although President Obama "hasn't signaled a position yet," Kristof writes that he "hope[s] he will seize upon it." He adds, "I can't imagine a better use of foreign assistance dollars -- or better symbolism than having the most powerful nation on earth reach out to help the most stigmatized, suffering people on the planet" (Kristof, New York Times, 10/31).