Dr. Gumadoka, a BMC fistula surgeon, talks with a patient about her care.

Photo: Dorthe Pederson

The Bugando Medical Center Fistula Project (BMC) was founded in 1997 by a group of health and human rights professionals, and is affiliated with the Bugando Medical Center, a government-run hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania. Its mission is to contribute to the prevention of obstetric fistula, to provide appropriate care for those afflicted, to increase capacity by training surgeons and nurses in fistula repair and to carry out data collection and analysis to better understand the causes and consequences of fistula.

A BMC fistula patient, repaired this past May, with help from One By One grants, stands in front of the entrance to the hospital.

Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

One By One chose the Bugando Medical Center Fistula Project as a multi-year grantee for several reasons:

• They are a well-respected program with a long track-record of success
• BMC partners with other organizations in Tanzania, thus strengthening their work. Partner organizations include the Women’s Dignity Project, which engages in public education and political activism on behalf of women with fistula; the Tanzanian Ministry of Health; and local midwifery organizations
• The size of the grants One By One can provide will make a significant impact on BMC’s ability to provide superior treatment to fistula patients and expand training and prevention programs throughout Tanzania.

Bugando Medical Center will be the site of our funded medical research project to prevent fistula. More information about this project will be available soon so please come back.

In the meantime, please click here for the beginning information on this exciting new project.

Medical Supply Procurement Assistance
$36,017 in kind

Through a partnership with Direct Relief International (DRI) the Bugando Medical Center’s Fistula Project received US $36,017.03 in supplies, including much-needed equipment and medicines, such as gloves, masks, catheters and IV sets. After working with One By One to investigate BMC’s work, DRI was so impressed that BMC also received a shipment of US $35,322.19 in supplies for the rest of the hospital’s needs.

Paying Nurses, Medical Assistants and Operating Theater Staff in order to care for 48 more women in 2009
$20,000

A BMC fistula patient talks with former VVF Project Coordinator Liz Mach and a BMC Medical Assistant

Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

Because of a strong grantee partnership, we developed a 2008 grant that helps both the medical staff and the patients. In 2008 One By One is proud to have granted $20,000 that is earmarked to pay for 52 additional days of nursing in 2008 as well as 52 additional days of work by the medical assistants who work with fistula patients on the VVF ward. These funds will help the VVF ward staff by offering additional pay in 2009. This additional staffing time will allow the nurses and medical assistants to care for an additional 48 patients in 2009 bringing the total patients to be helped in 2009 to 348.

Head Nurse Yasinta Mukama, a dedicated and valued member of the BMC nursing staff.

Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

Fistula patients require a minimum of 14 days of intensive post-operative nursing care to insure that their fistula will close properly. Well-trained nursing staff is as important to fistula cure as a good surgeon. We are proud to support BMC’s fistula nursing and medical assistant staff with this grant.

Surgeons and qualified operating theater staff are obviously critical to fistula treatment. At BMC the fistula operating staff get operating theater time to work on patients just one day per week. With this grant, One By One’s funding will also pay for the operating theater staff to add one patient per week for most of 2009 thus adding 48 additional fistula patients in 2009. We thank the operating theater staff for the dedication and time it takes to care for additional patients in 2009.

New Stove, Sugar and Tea for Patients' Special Eating and Drinking Needs
$1,000

A BMC fistula patient takes her special meal back to her ward.

Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

One By One granted $1,000 for the purchase of a new stove which is used exclusively in the VVF ward to prepare special meals for the women. They often need special food because of the nausea they encounter during treatment. Keeping the women properly nourished is an important part of their successful recovery process.

BMC patients are also in need of good hydration during their pre and post-operative stay at the hospital. Many women are so nauseated that they cannot even keep water down. And yet most of them can drink sweetened tea to stay hydrated. BMC’s fistula ward needed sugar and tea for their fistula patients and we were proud to supply funding for these basic but very important parts of fistula recovery.

$43,000 to purchase a new operating table
As outlined in their proposal to us, the BMC used these funds to purchase a new operating table. Their existing table was falling apart and unsafe to use(see below). The cost of the table included delivery, installation and training for clinic staff on the table’s use. Also included is an evaluation of the table by a biomedical engineer six months after delivery.

The BMC fistula operating table before being replaced. You can see from these pictures that it was not in good condition. Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

A BMC operating room nurse prepares the new operating table to hold a patient for surgery. Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

In a recent letter, Dr. Balthazar Gumodoka, the project’s director, had this to say about the new table. “I wish to thank you sincerely for the operating table which is now fully operational. It is a great contribution to patient care in this hospital. As we treat the patients with such a comfort, we are always remembering One By One’s contribution.”

$7,000 to cover the cost of surgeries
These funds were earmarked to cover surgeries and sundries and services needed to perform fistula surgeries and post-operative care. We hope you’ll read through our newsletter and enjoy some of the stories of success there and below.

This young woman is 19 years old and, like 50% of her fellow Tanzanians, she lives in a rural village, far from medical care and as a result she gave birth to a stillborn baby boy and ended up with an obstetric fistula as well.

Because of the wonderful fistula treatment program at Bugando Medical Center and a grant from One By One, she received a successful fistula repair surgery this past Spring, 2008.

Photo: Dorthe Pedersen

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