Global health
Eight years alone. One surgery. Now her village is planning a party.
A childbirth injury cost Malosa her baby, her husband and her place in her community. A free operation gave her back her life.
Malosa was eighteen when she went into labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The labor was traumatic, and her baby was stillborn.
The labor also left her with an obstetric fistula, an injury that causes constant, uncontrollable leaking. It is treatable. But without treatment it does not heal, and the stigma can be as damaging as the injury.
Her husband left her. Her own family turned away. For eight years Malosa stayed home from the weddings, church services and market days that make up the life of a village.
In February 2025 she learned that surgery was available, free, at Vanga Evangelical Hospital, a partner of the Fistula Foundation. Donors paid for her care and for her travel to get there.
The surgery worked. Malosa is healed, and she is planning a celebration in her village to mark her return.
The Fistula Foundation estimates that at least one million women across Africa and Asia are living with the same injury.