By Miatta Caine with Kathi Gutierrez and Kathy Beth Stavinoha
My life was forever changed on my visit to the motherland when I travelled with the organization Dignity:Liberia into the rural areas of Liberia, West Africa. Dignity:Liberia is truly a humanitarian organization, which brings dignity, hope and restoration to women with fistula through healing, prevention and education.
WHAT IS FISTULA?
Often called the peepee and poopoo disease by those indigenous to Liberia, obstetric fistula is a medical condition, an injury that occurs during childbirth. This injury leaves a hole between the birth canal and the vagina or the bowel and birth canal, resulting in incontinence of urine or feces. This can also lead to complications of infertility and depression. Sufferers of fistula are usually socially isolated and stigmatized because of the leaking and foul-smelling discharge associated with this condition.
Trying to see the bright side to the work associated with this debilitating condition, I had been looking forward with great anticipation to getting together with my friend Kathi (Park) Gutierrez, the founder of Dignity:Liberia, whom I had not seen since our high school days and a brief high school reunion. The icing on the cake would be to surprise our friend Kathy Beth Stavinoha, with whom I had also attended high school.
Early that morning, I woke up, having not gotten much sleep the night before. Filled with anticipation, I was so excited! Not knowing the traffic conditions or how long it would take me to get to the ELWA housing compound where Kathy Beth and Kathi were staying, not even knowing the exact location of the compound and not knowing how long it would take us to travel up country (the more rural areas), I hurriedly put my clothes on and was out the door!
Kathi Gutierrez had suggested that we surprise Kathy Beth; so, neither of us had mentioned to her that I would be joining them! I finally arrived early that morning at this modest, but beautiful compound by the ocean called ELWA, where Kathy Beth and Kathi were staying. All the secrecy was worth it, just to see the look on Kathy Beth’s face when she saw me! We all did some hugging and reminiscing! I also met the Muellers; Charlie, a burn Surgeon who had previously spent a part of his high school years in Liberia and his wife Anne-Marie, a former pediatric nurse. They were in Liberia to provide surgery and other medical services, gratis. We then got on the road!
On hand to assist us were members of the local Liberia Dignity:Liberia team, Rev. Emile Sam-Peal, Matthew Walters and Jackson Carter. They had done some of the leg work and were intimately familiar with the route and the construction of the House of Hope and Dignity. House of Hope and Dignity is a maternity waiting home project for pregnant women which will help women who have no transportation to hospitals when they go into labor, which is one of the risks of fistula.
OUR TRAVELS
We all then had our “stuff” taken outside to the four-wheel drive vehicles where our luggage, food and toiletries were packed and transported with us. Along the way, we talked and talked about almost everything! From driving on the highway in front of Wulki Farms to driving past BWI, the Booker Washington Institute, we had caught up on everything!
Our first stop was Kakata, where we stayed at The KEM Guest House, managed and owned by Mr. Kemokai. While we were in the yard of the guest house, we noticed a man getting into his vehicle to leave the premises. He started chatting with us, only to discover that not only had he been in Kakata working as a medical doctor, but he was a relative of a cousin on my father’s side…a young cousin who had lived with and been sponsored by my parents when he was a youth. This doctor mentioned that my young cousin often spoke fondly of my parents. We exchanged phone numbers and he promised to connect my long, lost cousin with me, which he subsequently did! I interpreted that as “confirmation” that I was meant to be on this trip.
The following day, the Dignity:Liberia team, led by Kathi Gutierrez, visited the Phebe Rehabilitation Center in Bong County. We toured the facility, seeing the innovation of the women survivors of fistula, such as turning a makeshift refrigerator into an oven! Our team interacted with the survivors, played games and had lunch with them. Kathy Beth Stavinoha, assisted by Miatta Caine interviewed and filmed the stories of fistula survivors and the Head Trainer, Sao Drapper.
Over the course of the next two days, the team kept a full schedule, including meeting with Dr. Sianna Jackson, Director of Health for Margibi County and the Marghibi County Health Team. The discussions included topics like promoting awareness, the surgeries, including c-sections and care for the pregnant women and fistula sufferers sponsored by Dignity:Liberia, accessibility, constraints and areas of collaboration to meet some challenges. Critical to those challenges are the lack of medicine and having to work with a stringent staff. We learned that very often, patients were referred to and transferred to other hospitals, which posed other challenges. The Dignity: Liberia team donated medication, hospital gowns and hospital equipment.
We visited with the female patients who are sufferers and survivors of fistula. They had been admitted to the hospital and were living in one, large, dormitory-styled room.
Between my dual roles as a College Professor and concurrently serving as an Emergency Manager who works intermittently in Disaster Management, I have seen quite a lot; however, reading about fistula is one thing, seeing the sufferers up close and personal is quite another! The initial shock of seeing the women in this habitat, feeling their suffering, hearing them talk about the body odors and their being ostracized from society was a triple dose of reality for which I had not been prepared. All my five senses became immediately activated on high alert! I am a relatively strong individual, however, with all of these facts and senses hitting me at once, it was overpowering! I saw firsthand what I cannot even imagine that these women must power through on a daily basis! After a while, I became so overwhelmed with emotions that I left the hospital room, not wanting my face or tears to betray me in front of these ladies who were already dealing with so much! I thank God that my friends Kathi and Kathy Beth were present, along with nurse Anne-Marie Mueller, also a member of the Dignity:Liberia team. My life was changed!
Our final day was spent at the construction site of Dignity:Liberia’s House of Hope and Dignity, where Kathi Gutierrez, the fearless leader took charge of supervising the contractors, architects, the plans for the adjacent clinic and so on! I watched her inspecting the timber and the land, visiting the self-sufficiency garden and climbing up the water tower, with Kathy Beth and me trailing behind! I watched in awe and exclaimed to myself, “Superwoman!!!”
As we walked the perimeter of the property, being shown and learning about bamboo plants, the history of the land, talking with the neighborhood children, watching the women cook for the workers and even inspecting the buckets of paint in the container storage, Kathi’s son took drone images of the property, which I found to be fascinating!
ACHIEVEMENTS:
“Dignity:Liberia is near completion of its House of Hope and Dignity, the Maternity Home, and plans are on track for building the adjoining clinic! These buildings and services will help to prevent the deaths of women who ordinarily may have had to walk or travel exceptionally long distances while in labor. Now they can rest in comfort and receive medical care at the House of Hope and Dignity. They will be able to safely deliver their babies at the clinic.
Dignity:Liberia also travels with doctors and medical personnel who donate their time and expertise to perform surgeries on the sufferers of fistula and other medical complications.
Dignity:Liberia grants scholarships for nurses at Phebe Hospital.
As if they are not already doing enough, I was pleasingly surprised to learn that Dignity:Liberia also supplies medicine to several major hospitals in Liberia. Kathi Guitierez also says “We continue to visit and sponsor the care of fistula survivors and sufferers. We are still working with young girls and holding classes that teach them how to make reusable menstrual pads.” We are partnering with the Rotary Club for our next group of workshops being held on February 26th and 27th in Monrovia and February 29th and March 1st in Kakata.
Along with its donors, the Board of Directors at Dignity:Liberia does indeed have a limitless heart for Liberia! I was so moved when on the trip, the money budgeted for the projects ran out because of unforeseen needs related to the care of the fistula sufferers and the building materials. This is where the importance of donations is really amplified! Being a fully volunteer operation, with everyone paying their own way and volunteering to serve in Liberia, I realized at that point that it really takes the “Heart of a Servant!”
Rather than crumbling or panicking, I was amazed when everyone regrouped and went into action by prioritizing, reorganizing and going into strategic planning mode! This brought me to another realization that Dignity:Liberia functions and is managed like a genuinely professional organization! How impressive!
This trip with Dignity:Liberia allowed me to see the work and workers in action as well as the inner workings, compassion and heart of this charity organization. Dignity:Liberia considers it an honor and a privilege to serve.
Their immediate goals are the completion of the House of Hope and Dignity (the maternity waiting home), a clinic with two operating rooms to conduct c-sections and fistula surgeries and their next workshops with the Rotary Club.
Their website is: www.dignityliberia.org