Vision

Nigeria_women

Fistula Care Plus (FC+) is a fistula repair and prevention project from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that builds on, enhances, and expands the work undertaken by the previous Fistula Care project (2007-2013), with attention to new areas of focus.  With appropriate resources, awareness, knowledge and strong health systems for prevention, treatment and reintegration, fistula can become a rare event for future generations.

The project is designed to:

  1. Strengthen the environment for services in the public and private sectors through partnerships that enhance programmatic, institutional and financial sustainability.
  2. Enhance community understanding and practices to prevent fistula, improve access to treatment, reduce stigma and support reintegration of women and girls with fistula, including those whose fistula is deemed incurable, and those whose fistula is the result of sexual violence.
  3. Reduce transportation, communication and financial barriers to accessing preventive care, detection, treatment and reintegration support.
  4. Strengthen provider, health facility and system capacity to provide and sustain quality services.  We will explore the feasibility of integrating genital prolapse prevention and treatment with fistula services.  Access to, and availability of, affordable, quality family planning services will remain a key component of our work.
  5. Strengthen the evidence base to improve fistula care and scale up application of standard monitoring and evaluation and indicators for prevention and treatment.

EngenderHealth is the prime recipient and managing partner.  Partners include the Population Council, Dimagi, Direct Relief, Fistula Foundation, Maternal Health Task Force, and Terrewode.  Activities have been or are currently conducted in Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, and Uganda.

Between 1 and 2 million women are currently in need of fistula repair.  Fistula is a problem that can be prevented with family planning and access to timely and skilled maternity care.  Our vision is that the next generation of girls will no longer need to be concerned about obstetric fistula by the time they begin to start their own families.