Imagine you are a young pregnant woman. You are excited at the prospect of becoming a mother.

You go into labour , but instead of having a baby the pain just gets worse and nothing happens for hours, sometimes days.

No problem, a Caesarian section will solve the problem of the baby too big for my pelvis. But wait, this isn’t Europe or America, this is Africa, there are very few hospitals and doctors. Oh well, perhaps I will lose this baby, but no… It keeps on coming and damages my body on the way through. If I’m lucky the baby lives but more often it dies.

Hopefully I will have the support of my family, my village and can start again.

But now what’s happening. I have a fistula. My poo is coming out of my vagina and I can’t control it. I am shunned and sent into isolation. Men do not want me. My life is ruined.

A terrible story but sadly so often true.