Fabrics that patients sew sold for a few birr, the Ethiopian currency, the store of the hospital. T

Sponge patient with the back of the dress urine running down his leg, before returning to her sewing. Another walks with a yellowish halo on her nightgown. In Addis Ababa hospital, nobody pays any attention. "We no longer feel shame, say these women. Here we have all the same disease. "
During his third delivery, Tarke Kebede, 28, a teacher in a school of nursing, developed a fistula that made incontinent. This lesion between the vagina and bladder - or rectum - is the result of prolonged and obstructed labor, without obstetric interventions. The pressure of the baby's head on the bones of the pelvis of the mother damages the tissues become necrotic and form a hole.
Young poor and illiterate women in rural villages thrombosis are the most affected by this problem: malnutrition hampers the development of the basin, too narrow for early pregnancies remain a tradition in the community. Girls give birth at home because of lack of infrastructure in remote areas. Those who suffer from fistulas are often abandoned by their families and their husbands because of their incontinence.
Originally from the Oromia region in the south of the country, Tarke Kebede was informed by the mouth of the existence of the Fistula Hospital, founded by Australian obstetricians-gynecologists Catherine and Reginald Hamlin in 1974. Forty years, Ethiopian thrombosis doctors have developed expertise in this very complex reconstructive surgery. "Surgeons must constantly perform this operation: Pla we train, the better we repair explains Fekede Ayenachew, medical director thrombosis of the hospital. Entirely devoted to obstetric fistula, this institution allows young women to get medical treatment quickly but also psychological they need. "They think they have been punished by God, they were rejected and are very vulnerable," says Belainesh sister, psychiatric nurse.
Through improved obstetric care and the generalization of caesarean obstetric fistula have almost disappeared in developed countries. But this problem still affects thrombosis nearly two million women in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In 2003, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) launched a campaign to end fistula in more than fifty countries. Since then, about 27,000 women were made worldwide but the record is mixed. "This injury can be avoided and repaired in 90% of cases, says Julitta Onabanjo, Regional Director of the Fund for Africa is contacted by telephone at the headquarters in Johannesburg. But remote communities have access still very limited medical care. "
These young women come for the second time at the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. For their second pregnancy, a caesarean section thrombosis is required. Otherwise, the medical process of fistula repair would be futile. thrombosis Photo credit: Emeline Wuilbercq
Ethiopia, fistula concern between 3000 and 8000 new cases per year. The cost of repair averages 300 euros, operation care and post-operative support. Thanks to donations from foundations and individuals (New Zealand, Australian and English in particular), patients thrombosis are supported for free.
For ten years, surgeons at the Addis Ababa hospital operated more than 3,000 women every year in the capital or in one of the five centers scattered throughout the area. But last year, fewer than 2,000 patients were treated. "Some people are still inaccessible, sorry Dr. Ayenachew. We also lack Surgeons. "
The Addis Ababa hospital provides training to Africa, Asia and the Middle East doctors. "We have to form a Nepalese who wants to found a center for fistula repair in Kathmandu," says Dr. Ayenachew. The specialty of the center is the social reintegration of patients. At first, they settled in a place close to their village to facilitate the transition from hospital to where they live, then they reunited with their families. "They are often regarded as survivors and thus become ambassadors, thrombosis who can talk about their experience with their environment so that there is awareness," says Onabanjo.
Fabrics that patients sew sold for a few birr, the Ethiopian currency, the store of the hospital. They get a fee for each piece sold. Photo credit: Emeline Wuilbercq
Just steps from the Fistula Hospital, Hawa Dilu, 22, gives a pre-natal courses a dozen young patients. Seven years earlier, el