SIM, in partnership with Worldwide Fistula Fund, has planned to build a Fistula Center in Danja, Niger where young women can receive treatment for a devastating condition.

Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labor without prompt medical intervention, usually by Caesarean section. The woman is left with chronic incontinence and, in most cases, a stillborn baby. Because in Africa many women have their first pregnancies when they are very young, the occurrence of obstetric fistulas are frequent and the young girls who suffer with them are treated as outcasts.

The objectives of the center include:

• surgical intervention
• rehabilitation and reintegration of fistula victims back into society
• fistula research
• training of Nigerian doctors to perform this specialized surgery

A Fistula Center in Danja would bring healing and hope as those who come as desperate, destitute, and abandoned would finally be able to return to their villages healthier, stronger, and free to begin a new life.

Pray for:

• God’s hand to be upon Steve Schmidt, SIM Niger Area Director, and his team as they persevere to make this center a reality.
• the proper permissions to be granted so that construction can begin.
• the women in Niger who are suffering with fistulas; that God would give them hope, and a voice for their future.

Read stories of hope from SIM's work with fistula projects in Nigeria.