Singer gives voice to ailment
UN push to end obstetric fistula
By
MARY GAZZE, TORONTO SUN
 |
Australian starlet Natalie Imbruglia was in Toronto yesterday to talk
about a condition that causes two million women in the Third World to
live in shame. |
Australian starlet Natalie Imbruglia was in Toronto yesterday to talk about a
condition that causes two million women in the Third World to live in shame. "Governments
... should make it their responsibility to end this unnecessary suffering," said
the petite singer, a spokesman for a United Nations campaign to eradicate
obstetric fistula. Imbruglia, whose most famous hit is 1997's Torn, said she
chose to aid the cause since the topic is taboo in developing countries and
women feel ostracized. "They needed a voice ... someone who wasn't scared to
talk about it. I'm up for a challenge," she said at the Spoke Club on King St.
W. Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, who went to Africa with the UN to perform surgeries,
said the condition sometimes causes husbands to abandon their wives, and
communities to shun the women. "It's like pounding your fist against a wall.
It's your fist that will give way," she told the Sun from Brooklyn, N.Y.
FORCED OUT DUE TO SMELL
Sleemi
said that teaching doctors to birth the child before the tissue is damaged will
prevent a fistula. The condition causes body tissue to die and fall out, leaving
a hole, or fistula, that makes women unable to control her urine or excrement.
They are often forced out of their homes because of the smell. A $300 US surgery
can repair the damage and restore a woman's life. "They're just beaming ...
their dignity's back," Imbruglia said, describing women she met in Nigeria after
their procedures. "They do a little dance when they've had their surgery. You're
giving women back their lives because living with fistula is not really living."
Toronto Sun