Fistula Foundation

Fistula Foundation 🌍 Global leader in obstetric fistula treatment, healing women across Africa and Asia
🧡 $633 can end needless suffering, and transform a woman's life

Obstetric fistula is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, so that's where we focus our efforts. We partner with carefully selected doctors and hospitals trusted by the communities they serve. Since 2009, we have delivered more than 75,000 life-transforming repair surgeries at more than 120 sites in 33 countries across Africa and Asia. Supporters like you from around the world have joined

forces with our dedicated doctors, outreach workers, and brave survivors. Together, we can end the suffering caused by obstetric fistula, and give women their lives back. You can trust that your gifts are in good hands. Fistula Foundation receives the highest ratings from every industry watchdog group and is committed to accountability and transparency.

On May 15, 2026, a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Ituri Province in northeastern DRC. Our FFTN team is actively moni...
05/28/2026

On May 15, 2026, a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Ituri Province in northeastern DRC. Our FFTN team is actively monitoring the situation and remains in close coordination with our partners—three of whom are located in or near the affected region. To support preparedness and infection prevention at these sites, we've issued special grants for personal protective equipment and hand hygiene supplies.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely in coordination with affected partners, maintain full alignment with national infection prevention and control protocols, and pause or reroute outreach activities in affected health zones until conditions allow safe resumption. The safety of patients, surgical teams, and partner staff remains our top priority. Please keep our partners, their staff, and the women we serve in your thoughts.

05/28/2026

It's incredible to see so many people around the world coming together to mark International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. This past weekend, advocates, survivors, health workers, and community leaders across Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, Bangladesh, and beyond showed up—marching through neighborhoods, gathering in hospital wards, and raising their voices for the women who deserve care.

Every walk, every ceremony, every surgery performed is a reminder that the movement to end the suffering caused by fistula is alive and growing. We are so grateful to everyone who took action this weekend.

This past Saturday, we marked International Day to End Obstetric Fistula alongside partners across Africa. The energy th...
05/26/2026

This past Saturday, we marked International Day to End Obstetric Fistula alongside partners across Africa. The energy they brought to the festivities was incredible!

From awareness walks in Kenya and Malawi, to 45 surgeries performed in Tanzania, to poetry, cultural performances, and community marches in Zambia, advocates everywhere are raising their voices to end the suffering caused by fistula. We're sharing more from the field all week, so make sure to follow along.

Earlier this week, Dr. Hillary Mabeya, our partner, founder, and lead surgeon of Gynocare Center in Kenya, was recognize...
05/16/2026

Earlier this week, Dr. Hillary Mabeya, our partner, founder, and lead surgeon of Gynocare Center in Kenya, was recognized as an Honorary Fellow of The American Society of Colon and Re**al Surgeons - ASCRS.

Dr. Mabeya has led fistula surgery and training with Amref Health Africa, Moi Teaching Referral Hospital, FIGO, Bwaila Hospital in Malawi, and Waldfriede Hospital in Germany. He serves as chief medical consultant for Beyond Fistula and co-founded Campaign 52, an international volunteer surgical mission program in Kenya. He also sits on the HPV vaccine advisory committee for Kenya's Ministry of Health.

Please join us in giving Dr. Mabeya a well deserved congratulations!

05/14/2026

Ken is a 31-year-old mother of two who lives in Kintambo, a district of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She developed obstetric fistula in 2022.

She stayed at a hospital for two months trying to get an answer as to why she was leaking urine. Staff there told her it was because she had delivered her baby during the rainy season. Another hospital told her it was just an infection. Neither was true.

For more than a year, Ken wore diapers and isolated herself in her bedroom. She avoided the family sofa and sat on a plastic chair instead, so she wouldn't soil it. She chose black clothes and oversized skirts to hide the stains. "I started feeling like I was no longer who I used to be," she said.
Left without real answers—and quoted $480 by one private clinic just for a consultation—Ken and her mother began to lose hope. Then her sister spotted a poster on WhatsApp for free fistula treatment at Bolamu Hospital in Mongafula.

Ken made the trip. The surgery, with our partner surgeon Dr. Lucien, was free, and it worked.

Today, Ken is dry and has re-entered her life. "My happiness was restored," she said. "It is as if I live a permanent party."

This is one of thousands of success stories in the DRC, made possible with dedicated investment from committed funders. But there is still so much need, with an estimated 42,000 women suffering from untreated childbirth injuries. So we’ll keep working until no woman in the DRC is left behind.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day! Today we honor every mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, and mother figure who has loved without limits and given without hesitation. That kind of devotion changes lives.

It also describes supporters like you. Because of your generous heart, women across Nigeria, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and beyond have found their way back to health, to joy, and to the lives they deserve.

In that spirit, fistula survivors from Burkina Faso wish you a Happy Mother's Day in MoorĂ©, a language spoken in that country. 🌍

05/08/2026

Before fistula treatment, Pendeza was leaking urine uncontrollably— isolated from the family and the life she loved. Today, she's healed and looking forward to a bright and hopeful future—but that’s only because someone cared enough to act.

Pendeza was treated in the Democratic Republic of Congo by our partner FisPro DRC, with the support of donors and partners like Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Together with our local hospital partners in more than 35 countries and alongside a global community of supporters, we believe that mothers like her deserve to live full, happy, and productive lives. Sadly, up to one million women worldwide are suffering as she once did, simply for trying to bring a child into the world.

This Mother's Day, look no further for a meaningful way to celebrate motherhood. Your donation helps make surgeries like Pendeza's possible so mothers like her can get back to living their lives, and changing families, communities, and societies in the process.

At 19 years old, Lawan's labor didn't progress. Her baby was stillborn. And then she was left with obstetric fistula—lea...
04/29/2026

At 19 years old, Lawan's labor didn't progress. Her baby was stillborn. And then she was left with obstetric fistula—leaking urine uncontrollably, and soon shunned by her community.

"I used to sell tomatoes and peppers, but after I developed the condition, people stopped buying from me."

She didn't know it was treatable. Then someone told her about our partner in Nigeria. Surgery was free. Rehabilitation followed. Lawan chose to learn sewing and with it, rebuilt her life.

"I learned a skill, and I hope anyone in my situation can also learn a skill. Then they gave me a sewing machine, and I was very happy and grateful."

This Mother's Day, gifts are matched, up to $250,000. Give a mother her life back. https://bit.ly/3O634gj

This Mother's Day, give a gift that gives back.Donate $100+ and we'll send your loved one a curated bundle:👜 A handmade ...
04/27/2026

This Mother's Day, give a gift that gives back.

Donate $100+ and we'll send your loved one a curated bundle:

👜 A handmade bag crafted by fistula survivors in Kenya at Women and Development Against Distress in Africa
📘 A copy of No Woman Left Behind by our founding CEO Kate Grant
💌 A personalized, handwritten card

Every item carries a story. Order by May 1 for delivery by Mother's Day. Click the link to order: https://bit.ly/49BXSch

Mother's Day is coming up, and we want to celebrate the women who've shaped your life. Tell us what makes your mom (or a...
04/25/2026

Mother's Day is coming up, and we want to celebrate the women who've shaped your life. Tell us what makes your mom (or a mother figure) special—submit a note (and a photo!) via the link below or email [email protected].

A few loving notes will be featured in an upcoming email, just ahead of Mother's Day. Make sure you’re subscribed to our emails for the latest updates from the field.

P.S.—In honor of Mother’s Day, through May 10, all gifts can be MATCHED—up to a total of $250,000—to support life-transforming surgeries for women in Nigeria. To increase access to these matching funds, the first $25,000 of your gift will be matched. Please send love to mothers in need today! https://bit.ly/4vLPf7H

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