A strange way to help Africa
Carol Goar
skriver i “The Toronto Star (10. maj 2006)
First we sent missionaries to teach them our beliefs.
Then we sent development experts to transfer our technology and economic assumptions.
Now we are sending celebrities to publicize their plight. The people of Africa must find us odd.
They can nott afford to disdain (ringeagte) our charity. Half live on less than one dollar a day. They may be wholeheartedly grateful or too consumed with lifes struggles to question our ways. But we do present a peculiar spectacle.
Last week, one of the UN lesser-known agencies brought its celebrity-fronted appeal to Toronto.
A very pretty pop star named spoke at an exclusive King St. club to promote the Global Campaign to End Fistula, a childbirth injury affecting more than 2 million women in the developing world. It results in incontinence (ufrivillig vandladning), shame and, in many communities, shunning.
The campaign was launched in 2003 by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Two years later, Imbruglia, a 31-year-old Australian singer/model/actress looking for a cause to champion, signed on as its official spokesperson.
– Governments and the international community should make it their responsibility to end this unnecessary suffering, she said, reading from notes, adding: – Please help restore the dignity of women and girls.
There is no doubt that obstetric fistula (fistula erhvervet ved at føde) is a heartbreaking problem.
It occurs when a woman, typically one living in a remote village, attempts to give birth without medical care. The baby gets stuck in her birth canal – sometimes for days – and dies.
The obstructed labour (fødselsveer) tears a hole (fistula) in the tissue separating the vaginal canal from the bladder (blære) or rectum (endetarm), leaving the woman leaking urine or feces (ekskrementer) or both.
Her husband often abandons her. Family members are driven away by the smell. The community treats her as unclean. She becomes a social pariah, rarely emerging from her hut.
The victims are frequently teenagers who become pregnant before their bodies are fully developed. Barely into adolescence (voksne), they face a life of isolation and pain.
There is no doubt that this is one of the worlds hidden tragedies.
Fistula is virtually unheard of in North America and Europe. It was eradicated a century ago by improvements in medical care. With timely intervention – normally a Caesarean section (kejsersnit) – no woman need live through this nightmare.
But in rural Africa, where health-care facilities are primitive or non-existent, it remains widespread. Overshadowed by AIDS, malaria, droughts and famines, it is a silent scourge (svøbe).
Moreover, most Africans do not want to talk about it. They live in patriarchal cultures where 1 in every 16 women still dies in childbirth and female reproductive health is not discussed.
There is no doubt that Canadian aid would make a difference.
Fistula can be treated. With reconstructive surgery and time to heal, a woman can resume a full life.
The operation has a 60 to 90 per cent success rate, depending on the severity of the injury. The average cost is 330 dollar, including two weeks of follow-up care – far beyond the reach of most African women, but quite affordable by Western standards.
There is no doubt that Imbruglia is sincere in her desire to help.
She has been to Nigeria twice. She has met women with the condition and seen how proper medical care changes their lives.
She could have stayed in her world of privilege and comfort. She could have chosen an easier, more glamorous cause.
But what does it say about us that we will pay attention to a minor celebrity, yet ignore aid groups, African doctors and representatives of the World Health Organization who have tried to highlight this problem for years?
How do African women suffering from fistula feel about being filmed and photographed with fluid running down their legs? How would North American women feel in their place?
Why did the delegation that came to Toronto consist solely of performers, publicists, filmmakers and marketers?
Why did the organizers hold the briefing at the Spoke Club, a fashionable members-only bar/restaurant in the entertainment district? Why did the event feel as if it belonged at the International Film Festival?
Maybe this is the face of altruism (velgørenhed) in 2006. Maybe there is no other way to jolt a media-saturated (medie-gennemsyret) society into sharing a bit of its wealth.
But given our record in the developing world, we might want to take a hard look in the mirror.
We have been wrong before. Usually it was because we got so caught up in doing things our way that we lost sight of the people we were trying to help.
More information about fistula is available at www.endfistula.org
Kilder: The Toronto Star og The Push Journal
