It is estimated that one million women worldwide live with untreated fistula.

Behind this staggering estimate are real lives—mothers, daughters, and sisters—enduring unimaginable pain and isolation. Fistula, a devastating childbirth injury, occurs when women in labor cannot access life-saving emergency care.

Trapped in prolonged, obstructed labor without medical help, they survive—but are left with a body that can no longer control urine or feces. The physical agony is only the beginning. The shame, loneliness, and crushing stigma that follow often steal their futures.

In Kenya, roughly 1% of women of reproductive age have experienced fistula-like symptoms, but exact numbers remain unknown. Many suffer in silence, hidden away by a world that misunderstands their condition.

Beyond the relentless leaking and infections, these women face stillbirths, chronic pain, infertility, and nerve damage.