Zimbabwe’s government has given in to pressure from rights groups and is now providing free treatment to women with obstetric fistula, a condition that makes it hard for mothers who went through difficult labor to control their bowels. For a closer look, VOA visited Chinhoyi, a farming and mining area about 150 kilometers west of Harare, where early marriages are common, and where the treatment is being offered.

Among the first beneficiaries of the treatment were young women at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital after government gynecologists had performed surgery to address their cases of obstetric fistula. Twenty-three-year old Chiedza, not her real name as she requested that VOA protect her identity, was visibly happy as she had not been able to control her bowels since giving birth to her son seven years ago.

“When I gave birth I tore my private parts, so I couldn’t hold my feces,” she said. “It would just come out on its own. I would just feel something on my body flowing. I stayed like that because I did not have money to seek services of gynecologists to correct my condition. So, when I heard about this free service on a WhatsApp group for women, I called a toll-free number which was there and I came here. So I am now going to live a comfortable life. I can now perform even house chores comfortably.”

Another woman who asked to be called Tendai ruptured her bladder after protracted labor at home while giving birth at the age of 16.

“I would share nappies with my baby so as to block my smell from others,” she said. “At one time I almost committed suicide because people kept on laughing at my condition. I thought I had been bewitched till I came here and saw that there are some people in my condition. I am grateful for this procedure for it has given me hope.”

The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 women experience obstetric fistula every year and that about 2 million women in sub-Saharan Africa are living with the condition.

Dr. Stanley Ngwaru, a senior gynecologist in Zimbabwe’s ministry of health, says the condition is an abnormal communication between the woman’s genital tract and the urinary tract or the rectum.

“They suffer shame and they suffer social segregation,” he said. “It’s very common in young women, because the genital tract is not well developed and when they go into labor, they are more likely to suffer from obstruction and this can lead to these communications are developing between the genital tract and the unit tract and the rectum.”

Lucia Masuka, head of Amnesty International in Zimbabwe, says she commends the government for offering the free service. However, she believes authorities needs to develop a strategy to help prevent this condition from afflicting young women in the first place.

“If we therefore facilitate access to sexual reproductive health services for this group, it will reduce instances of early pregnancies, and in turn, reduce cases of obstetrics fistula,” she said. “Whilst treatment is a positive development, it’s akin to trying to mop water from an open tap; you will never really be able to mop that water as long as the tap is open.”

Amnesty International in Zimbabwe last year pleaded with parliament to push the government to make obstetric fistula treatment a national issue after its research had revealed that the condition was rampant among young women in Zimbabwe and was not getting enough attention.