Fistula Survivor’s Name:  Maima Modoba
Interview Date:  September 4, 2018
Interview Location:  Phebe Rehab Center, Bong County, Liberia
Interviewers:  Kathy Beth Stavinoha and Kathi Gutierrez
 
Maima Modoba was born in Phebe where she also grew up.  She has four sisters and two brothers.  She has not gone to school.  She learned the alphabet at the Phebe Rehabilitation Center.  She also learned how to count and add money at Rehab.
 
She was living in Red Light, Monrovia when she got her fistula in March 2016.  When she went into labor, she went to a midwife* who told her she was fine.  God took Maima from there; the midwife transferred her to JFK Hospital.  It was too late – she had developed a fistula and her child did not make it.  She had her fistula for 2 years but after [indistinguishable] fistula repair surgeries, she is now dry. 
 
The most difficult thing about having a fistula was that her friends shunned her.  She felt different because she had the “pee pee sickness.”  She couldn’t go around her friends. 
 
She learned two trades at the Phebe Rehab Center: tailoring and soap making.  She likes tailoring better and plans to be a tailor in Red Light.  She does not want to leave the Rehab Center because she wants to keep learning. 
 
She would tell a friend that she learned something from her fistula experience.  If you know giving birth causes a fistula, you need to put that knowledge to good use.  If you put it to good use, it will help you and help your family.
 
She has nobody to help.  Her family will not help her.  She will have to support herself.  She wants to be somebody tomorrow. 
 
Maima is a fistula survivor.  Hear her story in her own voice. 

* The midwife referenced in this interview refers to a “traditional midwife” or a tribal birth attendant who has no medical training.

If you are following us on Facebook, then you know that we recently promoted our new wish list for the Rehab Center.  There are many needs, but Depends and mattress covers have the highest priority.
 
If you have had an opportunity to listen to some of the fistula survivor interviews posted in Let's Palava, then you know that some of the women living at the Rehab Center are awaiting additional surgery and are not yet “dry.” 
 
I encourage you to listen to the interviews.  Some of them are hard to understand in places, as there is a lot of background noise.  Sometimes it is hard to understand their enunciation or certain expressions.
 
One thing is clear.  The emotional trauma caused by a fistula: tears, pain, and bitterness.  These gave me a new understanding.  Pain flickered in more than one survivor’s eyes when she recalled being too ashamed to go out with friends because she was leaking urine.  Another’s voice grew hard and bitter when commenting that her family would have nothing to do with her after she got her fistula.  Still another got tears in her eyes and said no one loved her except for God and Dignity:Liberia.  I also understand that now they have hope.  They are healed or improved, they feel loved, and they have learned a trade.  They went from restricted lives to having a future of promise. 
 
If you have supported Dignity:Liberia in any way, you have played a big part of that hope!  I wish you could see and hear the appreciation of the Rehab Center staff and the fistula survivors.  Your help means so much to them!

Fistula Survivor’s Name:  Hawa Kerkula
Interview Date:  September 4, 2018
Interview Location:  Phebe Rehab Center, Bong County, Liberia
Interviewers:  Kathy Beth Stavinoha and Kathi Gutierrez
 
Hawa Kerkula was born in Lofa County.  She grew up in Margibi with her three brothers.  On April 18, 2017, she went to the hospital for a C-Section.  Her child did not live.  A week later, she started experiencing her problem (leaking).  She was in the 12th grade. 
 
Having an obstetric fistula is embarrassing.  You can’t go among your friends.  You have to stay alone.  Even if you have someone encouraging you, you can end up killing yourself.  It is very bad.
 
Hawa learned three trades: cosmetology, soap making, and embroidery.  Her favorite is embroidery.  After she graduates from the Phebe Rehabilitation Center, she is returning to Margibi where she hopes to finish high school before setting up a business.  It would be hard to go to school and run a business at the same time because she would not pay attention to her lessons.  She just has to complete her senior year.  She really wants to go to school.  Last year her father died and she has no help. 
 
If her friends were pregnant, she would advise them to go to the hospital or a clinic to have their baby.  She would discourage them from going to a midwife* because she would cause the fistula.
 
Hawa is a quiet girl and she needs help because she really wants to learn.  She comes from a poor background and she wants to help her people but she has no support.  She appeals to anyone who hears her voice to please come to her aid. 
 
Hawa is a fistula survivor.  Hear her story in her own voice.

* The midwife referenced in this interview refers to a “traditional midwife” or a tribal birth attendant who has no medical training.

Fistula Survivor’s Name:  Leemue Cooper
Interview Date:  September 4, 2018
Interview Location:  Phebe Rehab Center, Bong County, Liberia
Interviewers:  Kathy Beth Stavinoha and Kathi Gutierrez
 
Leemue Cooper has served as the matron of the Phebe Rehabilitation Center since July 2011.  She is originally from Bopolu.  She has four children: three boys and one girl.  She had two brothers and four sisters, one of whom was her twin.  Her twin passed about 3 weeks before this interview.  When she died, Leemue took in her two granddaughters, as their mother is also deceased.  Leemue has five grandchildren of her own.
 
Leemue got her fistula on April 18, 1981 while delivering her first baby, who did not survive.  She had been in labor for four days.  She could see the “water” (urine) running, which was very difficult for her.  She cried all day and night.  They didn’t call it fistula.  They called it the “pee pee problem.”  She didn’t want to be around anybody.  Any time she stood up, she had to feel under her clothes to see if she was wet.  It was not easy. 
 
Then she was taken to Phebe.  She saw three girls suffering from the same thing and she realized she wasn’t alone.  Her fistula was repaired with only one surgery.  Of the other three girls, one did not survive surgery. 
 
She has never had another fistula because her next three children were delivered by C-section.  She didn’t wait to go into labor.  Twenty to twenty-eight days into her 9th month of pregnancy, she would go to the hospital for the surgery. 
 
What made her sad about having a fistula is that she felt like nobody in society.  She felt like spoiled goods.  She felt as if she had been broken.  It’s a bad feeling but, if your friends come around you, you aren’t as anxious. 
 
When the new survivors arrive at the Rehabilitation Center, she likes to draw close to them so they know they are not alone.  Even though she’s the matron, she wants them to feel they are like her.  She wants them to know that she was like them before.  She teaches the girls how to fold their clothes so that their urine doesn’t leak through.  It used to be difficult to control the different girls, but God has helped her.  She can put them together. 
 
Their typical day starts at 7:00 or 7:30.  Everyone finishes bathing before 7:00.  At 7:30, they start their work.  During the week, the girls need to take care of themselves; they go to class, they eat and they clean their own rooms and wash their own clothes.  Sometimes they stay up until  10:00 o’clock.  They gather in the palava hut and play.  They have a laptop to watch a video.  Around 10:00 or 10:30 they go to bed though some of the girls do not go to bed until 11:00.  They now have electricity hooked up to solar.  The only time they can’t get electricity is when it’s out on the entire compound. 
 
Dignity:Liberia has done so many things for them.  They bring clothes and toys and plastic panties** for the girls.  The girls can’t buy anything at Rehab.  She can’t name everything they do.  They come and visit twice a year and make them happy.  She is very appreciative of Dignity:Liberia’s help. 
 
The greatest need for the girls living at the Rehab Center includes bedding, plastic mattress covers, and many small things including deodorant. 
 
Leemue would like people in the United States to know that in Africa, when girls living in rural areas go into labor, they can’t go to the hospital.  They go to midwives* who use their bare hands to deliver babies.  So they are asking the American people to help get rid of fistula in Africa as a whole.  The people in Liberia really want fistula to go away.  They need to teach nurses so they can be trained to deal with fistula.

Leemue is a fistula survivor.  Hear her story in her own voice.

*The midwives referenced in this interview are not medically trained.  Typically, they are a tribal birth attendant.
 
**Depends