Counseling

A woman with obstetric fistula is isolated, misunderstood, stigmatized, and sometimes even exiled. These social traumas cause intense psychological wounds that require individual and group counseling to address and heal. Our program manager Carol Mabeya uses her background in social work to provide one-on-one therapy and facilitate group healing from a specific, shared trauma. This program consists of daily individual counseling sessions of 20 to 40 minutes depending on need, as well as daily group sessions of 5 to 10 women lasting 30 minutes. Each fistula survivor is in counseling for the duration of her stay at our program houses.

Today we are housing 21 women, while 58 have moved out to start their own homes and careers.

Vocational Training College

We provide vocational training in tailoring, hairdressing, and catering. The tailoring students study for two years at our workshop in Eldoret under our tailoring instructor Ann Ojina, once a fistula patient in our program herself. The hairdressing training consists of one year of fully funded study at a local vocational college. The catering program consists of two years of study at St. Joseph Technical Training College.  After each fistula survivor finishes the training in her field of choice, she is given a business grant, fundraised with our partner Benevolent, to start a career. Many of the graduates of the vocational program go on to full-time positions in their fields, or venture into business ownership by participating in our business training. 

There are 7 women in this program today and 52 completed since we started!

Business Training

Often a woman’s career is waylaid by a fistula. The business training exists for those women who have previously established work experience in a specific field and dream of advancing their careers by starting their own small businesses. In this three-day module, our staff in Kenya impart the main tenets of small-business ownership. As in the vocational training program, each woman leaves the business module with a grant fundraised via our partner Benevolent.

Our business seminars have helped 318 women become empowered to take care of themselves and their families.

Our business grants have totaled 3,896,908 Kenyan Shillings ($26,450 USD) for 500 women so far.

 

Scholarship Program

Many fistula survivors dropped out of school when they became pregnant or when they developed a fistula. Our scholarship program helps these girls and young women return to their educations by partnering with The School Fund to pay for their uniforms, school fees, and books.

Today we have:

14 primary and secondary school students with 37 graduates to date.

8 college and technical school students with 13 graduates to date.

 

 

Farm Skills Workshops

Farming is a very common means of earning income in rural Kenya. Many fistula survivors have a background in farming and, once healed, are eager to learn how to turn their experience into an income-generating business. Our program includes a three-day farm skills training seminar taught by our partner Farming God’s Way. As in the vocational and business trainings, women leave the farm skills training with a grant to launch a small business.

Our farming workshops have allowed 108 women to transform their crops from barely being able to feed their families to having a surplus and selling at local markets for income.

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Women’s Health Workshop

 

-We had our first workshop in collaboration with Health by All Means (also known as Health by Motorbike) in May of 2023.  These women will be going out to start support groups with other fistula survivors in their villages.  They felt empowered with their new information and are excited to share their knowledge with others.
In our first workshop 32 fistula survivors attended and learned in depth information about their bodies, their health, about fistulas, and about cancer prevention.

 

 

 

 

There is more!

 

-Our partnership with Health by All Means trains our fistula survivors to be community health leaders.
-We have multiple research studies ongoing in collaboration with UCSF
-We have completed a 100 person retrospective research study in collaboration with Dr Allison El Ayadi from UCSF to validate the success of our post-fistula training programs.  We are currently conducting a prospective study in collaboration with Dr El Ayadi.
-The women in our program are not the only ones learning. We bring high school and college students, fellows, doctors, and friends to work with us in Kenya. Their experiences are inspiring and educational, their efforts and contributions are life changing, and their experiences turn them all into lifelong advocates all across the globe.

 

Kiondo Bag Weaving Workshops

Kiondo bags are a traditional Kenyan bag made sustainably from the fibers of the sisal plant and dyed with the bark of the muasi tree. Kenyan fashion designer Vicky Ngari, who learned bag making from her Kikuyu roots, is on a mission to reawaken the art of the Kiondo and simultaneously empower impoverished, rural women with a marketable skill. She teaches Kiondo workshops for fistula survivors  – many of whom go on to open small businesses that benefit the earth, their communities, and their economic standing. See some of the survivors’ beautiful work here.

To date, over 500 baskets have been made during our workshops.

 

 

 

 

Check out our sister charity: Chameleon Buddies