This year I have the privilege of working in Togo on Mercy Ships for 6 weeks. I have been placed in Gynae which is amazing as most of you know that’s where I love to work. The women that we are treating are women who have the need for VVF surgery otherwise known as Vesicovaginal Fistula. Basically these women had a neglected and obstructed birth and never healed from the damage caused. Most of the ladies here have struggled until the baby died and during this agonizing process, loss of circulation caused tissue to die, leaving large gaps between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, causing incontinence. Most women suffering with obstetric fistula are ostracized by their families and communities as they smell and are constantly wet, leaving them to live as outcasts. Not only do they have to come to terms with losing a child, they have to suffer loss of their families and their dignity.

On Wednesday morning I attended a ceremony on the ward where 8 women following a successful surgery are dressed in a new gown with a beautiful headdress and we celebrated their new found dignity and praised God for the outcome of their surgery.
I cried. I couldn’t help the tears from flowing as a listened to these women telling their stories of how they lost their children and then lost their families with one lady being forced to live in the bush and others being taken in by neighbors who took pity. Some lived with this 'sickness' for 20+ years, others for 2 but this did not make them complain. I think if that had been my story...losing a child and then my family...I would find a lot to complain about. Instead these women started their stories with a shout of HALLALUJAH and continued to sing and hug those around them. I wish you could be there to see and feel the atmosphere. It was very special.

Please pray for continued success for surgeries and that these ladies stay ‘dry’and for the ones where it has not been possible to make them 'dry' that they will be accepted home into their communities. The surgeries are sometimes not successful which is heartbreaking for us and them.