Objectives

POWER is the abbreviation of Project On Women Empowerment in Reproduction. POWER was founded by members of Zonta aan de Leede (a foundation of academic women). They organised several fundraising activities for the rehabilitation of girls and women with obstetric fistulas. The fistulas exist as a result of obstruction of the baby in the birth canal. As a result the women have holes between the vagina and bladder and/or rectum. Due to the holes the women are 24 hours per day incontinent for urine and/or stool. This complicated medical problem leads to stigmatisation and the women become outcasts of the society. In the year 2003 WHO estimated a number of 800.000 untreated fistula patients in Nigeria alone.