As part of a clinic partnership with the Gynocare Women’s Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, and the Waldfriede Hospital in Berlin, a team of doctors led by Dr. Roland Scherer visited the hospital in Kenya in May 2023. Dr Hillary Mabeya, head of Gynocare Hospital, had lined up complicated cases that required a certain expertise. The team worked tirelessly from morning until late evening, trying to operate on as many women and girls as possible. This also involved an exchange of medical specialist ideas with a mutual learning effect.
Genital circumcision - genital mutilation
The practice of female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision or female genital mutilation (FGM), is also a sad reality in Kenya. Although the ban on FGM has been enshrined in law in Kenya since 2011, the practice remains widespread in some communities. Girls and women often fall victim to this cruel tradition, which has serious physical and psychological consequences.
FGM - human rights violation
Marcel Wagner, managing director of the Austrian branch of the international aid organisation ADRA, sees FGM as a serious violation of human rights. For many years, he said, ADRA Austria has supported the Kajiado project, which deals with the genital mutilation of young Maasai women and is run by the Bring-Hope-Kenya e.V. Association. According to Wagner, the mutilation is done for cultural, religious or social reasons, but also to control female sexuality. This has negative effects on the health and well-being of those affected, including infections, complications during childbirth and long-term pain.
Isolated from family and society
Many of these women suffer from fistulas, which are caused by complications during childbirth, as well as incontinence of urine and/or faeces. Both are often late consequences of genital circumcision and early marriage, because the bodies of young girls are not yet prepared for childbirth. Most of the women could not afford an operation and, therefore, had to live isolated from family and society in a small hut on the outskirts of their village. They would be called "stinking women" because they suffer from incontinence and lack proper hygienic facilities and aids. Most have been abandoned by their husbands. The joy and hope were all the greater when the team from Waldfriede Hospital arrived and brought help.
Projects to help affected women
Because many women have led a life of isolation for years, it is important that they learn to take steps into social life again after a successful operation. Two weeks after hospitalisation, these women and girls are prepared for a new start in life. In an affiliated part of Gynocare Hospital, they learn tailoring, cooking and other technical activities. This gives the women skills that they can use as income-generating activities. They make aprons, computer bags and toilet bags, among other things.
With the "Project Kajiado", Maasai girls are given the opportunity to escape the practice of female circumcision, says Wagner.
Another project, "Beyond Fistula", gives these women the opportunity to reintegrate into society and gain the dignity of a woman. These women and young girls who have lived in the shadows of society and have been called "stinking women" now have the opportunity to get a second chance in life, said Evelyn Brenda, chairperson of the board of the association "Bring-Hope-Kenya e.V.", which works closely with Waldfriede Hospital. She is very grateful for this cooperation and the medical support of Gynocare Hospital. With the joint effort, she wants to "give dignity back to these women and girls and remind them that they are truly beautiful and valuable."
To read the ADRA report on the mission of the team of doctors from Berlin, please go here.
To read more about the Bring-Hope-Kenya e.V. Association, please go here.
To read the original article, please go here.