For the past three (3) years DOVENET has been in partnership with the Friends of Nigeria (FON) on the fight against obstetric fistula among women of Ebonyi state. In her effort to curb the stigma caused by fistula DOVENET visited two Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ebonyi state with fistula and other health messages.
DOVENET organized town-hall meetings, community dialogues, home visits, review meetings and church outreaches in these LGAs. The activities were a success as a result of her set up structures which includes (WDCs, CSOs, SMOs, Health Workers, Volunteers and other key stakeholder which helped in organizing the activities.
The activities were aimed at increasing awareness of obstetric fistula, its prevention and treatment, increasing the awareness of the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM), increasing awareness of access to reproductive health services, importance of antenatal care and family planning, identification of fistula clients for referrals and repaired, monitoring and evaluation, collection of data, and also to increase the support and commitment of community members, stakeholders and traditional leaders to the project implementation.
At the end of the activities a total of 2,355 persons (888 male and 1,467 female) were reached with appropriate messages and nine (9) fistula clients were identified, of which seven (7) were repaired, one (1) referred and one (1) unrepaired due to health complications.
