Imagine five days of labor that end in stillbirth. As you try to pull yourself together emotionally after this unimaginable loss, you realize that you’re constantly wet. You don’t know why, but that five days of labor made a hole in your bladder that constantly leaks urine. This hole is also known as an obstetric fistula. You try to drink less, but that makes your wretched smell even stronger. Your husband thinks you’re cursed so he leaves. No one wants to work with you because you stink. You can’t even get water because you are the unclean. You are left alone on the margins of society begging for an end to your suffering. This is obstetric fistula.

More than 2 million women are living with obstetric fistula and there are 100,000 new cases every year. But despite an inexpensive surgery that is 90% effective, only 15,000 women receive treatment every year. That means that this year, only  1 out of every 140 women with fistula will get life-recovering treatment.

We think it is an injustice that so many women in the developing world receive dramatically inadequate maternal health care. We want to change that. Our first step in the journey of battling injustice starts by helping women with obstetric fistula. Read their stories. See how we work. See who we are. Learn how you can help.