Rehema

Rehema barely looks old enough to have given birth a year ago.  Nor old enough to cope with the devastating loss of a child.  But she has experienced both.

Rehema doesn’t know exactly how old she is, she looks about 17. She is from the Maasai tribe and lives in a very remote part of Tanzania where the focus is on survival; especially this year when the rains have not been good.  Rehema has never been to school and has spent her life looking after the family’s precious cattle with her two brothers and one sister.  This year they have had to walk great distances looking for good pastures to feed the stock.

Rehema was married in 2008 and quickly became pregnant.  Her mother delivered her baby on the floor of their home made from the earth in the west of the country.  Although the labour was only one day long, Rehema says, “It was very severe and so so painful.  My daughter was alive when she was born but died later that day.” 

Rehema then found that she was leaking urine and was unable to control the flow.  During the labour a hole developed between the bladder and the vagina; a disability called Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF).  Women with fistula in Tanzania are regularly ostracised by their communities because of their condition; excluded from work and social opportunities they frequently hide themselves away.  “It was not a good time,” Rehema softly explains, “I knew I smelled bad.  I did not want to be near people so I just stayed at home all day. I was not able to help the family with the cattle.” 

A relative, who had also suffered from fistula following the birth of her own child, heard what had happened and told Rehema to come to CCBRT Disability Hospital in Dar es Salaam.  So the family sold one cow to pay for the transport – a two day bus journey.    Accompanied by her mother, Rehema came to CCBRT and had surgery to repair the fistula ten days after her arrival.

Rehema is dry now and is nearly ready to go home now.  “CCBRT is a good place, I will explain to others like me that they must come here because the doctors and nurses are kind.  There is no need for suffering because this leaking can be cured.”