I didn't make the heading up myself. I read it on the Operation OF website. Today is the first UN International day of the Girl. Many bloggers and journalists are writing about this important initiative and there is certainly much to write.
The International Day of the Girl includes equality in education for girls, equal standing in traditional families, fighting to stop childhood marriage (where it is invariably the girl who is still the child), equal opportunities for girls, and just about every issue in which girls get less or are treated as less than boys.
One of the loudest causes has been the fight against child marriage. There are lots of obvious reasons (and some less obvious) why a girl should not be 'sold' into marriage as a young teenager. Follow @WorldVisionUK and @WorldVisionPR and World Vision’s facebook page for news and stories on #childmarriage. One of them is the biggest problem you've never heard of (or OF) - obstetric fistula.
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| The Hamlin Fistula Hosptal, Addis Ababa |
Michelle describes her visit to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa as part of the ONEMums mission. She states that the physical immaturity of the child-mothers makes this condition more likely to occur. Operation OF describes it as follows:
"Obstetric Fistula is the Biggest Problem You’ve Never Heard OF
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."
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| Some of the women treated at the Hamlin Fistula Hospital, Addis Ababa |
And yet this condition is easily treatable with a relatively quick and simple operation. Read the women's stories on the OperationOF website. Read Michelle's account of the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. Both have suggestions for how you can help if you are so moved. This is the issue that grabbed my attention and moved me. 11/10 is the International Day of the Girl. A girl is a girl, not a wife/mother/breadwinner. Remember what it was like to be a girl? There are, as I said, many causes involved with this Day. Find yours and make a difference.
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Thank you Rachel for raising awareness of this important issue. Unfortunately some of the consequences of child marriage on girls can be devastating, such fistula from early childbirth. Thank you for lending your voice to the cause as we work together to tackle child marriage.
ReplyDeleteKayla, World Vision UK
Thank you for your comment Kayla.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for raising awareness of this. As a mother of two girls (young women), I find it difficult to comprehend that many girls in the developing world have no choice but to go through this, while teen pregnancy and birth rates in the developed world are still high, despite sex-education and birth control being readily available.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how readily available birth control is in the remote villages and there is probably pressure to have more children to help with the work. Thanks for your comment.
DeleteI'm not sure if my comment made sense...I meant that I understand that young women in developing countries have no choice and end up suffering the consequences of teen pregnancies, whereas our young women in the west do have access to birth control and education, yet they are still getting pregnant at an alarmingly high rate.
DeleteYou comment made perfect sense but I misread developed world as developing world - sorry, and I agree with you. I think one of the problems in the UK is girls with no other ambition (or hope for the future) other than being a mother. Some of them are searching for love and hoping to find it through a baby and some of them have such low self-esteem they think motherhood will give them a certain status in society. Both of these are issues that should be addressed by Day of the Girl. Sorry again about the misunderstanding.
DeleteI read Michelle's post - what a horrendous thing to have to go through - You are doing a fab job of raising awareness by the way!.
ReplyDeleteThanks OM - I've really got into the whole ONEmums mission this week. I quite like working around one topic for a week. I almost feel like I'm in Ethiopia with them.
DeleteThanks, as a result of your reminder I read Mich's post. How humbling and heart opening.
ReplyDeleteLiska xx
Glad to have jogged your memory...and your heart. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this, but it's awful. Thanks for raising awareness and you've also reminded me to read Michelle's post.
ReplyDeleteI had actually heard of this as i saw it on Oprah once but it doesn't hurt to be reminded to do something towards helping. It is awful.
ReplyDeleteSuch heartbreaking stuff that can be dealt with relatively easily. Thank you for highlighting such an important cause...
ReplyDeleteI think it's the fact that there is a simple solution makes it so much more heartbreaking.
DeleteI had heard of this, and as with so many of these things, I almost can't believe it. We live in 'modern' times don't we? Yet problems like these sound mediavel and reading about this again makes me glad that I am trying to help in a small way x
ReplyDeleteEveryone's small way together adds up to massive exposure. Thanks xx
DeleteGosh that explanation form the Operation OF made me cry, thasnk for all yoru posts. Mich x
ReplyDeleteI know, it really brings home how terrible it is to have to walk around with an OF especially when it is treatable.
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