Tough Women, Tough Topics: In Conversation With Alison Sutherland & Margaret Lobo

*Trigger warning - includes detail of obstetric fistula*

In the third episode of SI Voices, Soroptimist Hilary Ratcliffe delves into some tough topics with guests, SI Quadrennial Project Liaison, Alison Sutherland, and past SI President 2007-2009, Margaret Lobo. Focusing on past projects, we discuss how SI is tackling some of the biggest issues women face across the world. We look at the challenges faced whilst rebuilding lives and communities following the Sierra Leone Civil War, and how women who are suffering from obstetric fistula in Ethiopia are empowered to reintergrate into society.

Transcript available: https://sivoices.buzzsprout.com/1231769/6065695-tough-women-tough-topics

Transcript

Intro
Hello and welcome to Soroptimist International (SI) Voices, where we give a global voice to women and girls. SI Voices is a space where women's stories and issues are heard. As we celebrate 100 years of our remarkable organisation, we will reveal and rediscover the history of our global movement while educating and informing on many of the key challenges affecting women and girls today.

Hilary  (Host)
Hello, my name is Hilary. I'm a Soroptimist of many years standing. And I want to talk to you today about tough women taking on tough issues and trying to make a difference. The two issues we're going to talk about are obstetric fistula and the destruction of communities as an act of war, and I honestly don't think you can get tougher issues than these. I want to introduce two fellow Soroptimists who led projects trying to change both perceptions and attitudes to both these terrible issues. So my first guest is Margaret Lobo, a former International President who was responsible for a project called 'Restoring Dignity', which was involved with the Catherine Hamlin Hospital in Ethiopia, which works with women who endured the indignity of fistula. So, Margaret, could you tell us how you came to choose this project?

Margaret  (Guest 1)
Certainly, Hillary - hello! Well, I was born in Kenya and I worked as a radiographer. And that's where I saw my first patient with a fistula. How terrible. Then I discussed it with my sister, who was a gynaecologist and worked at the same hospital. She said, there were many young women like that. So we thought we'd start a project to find out why, and if it could help them and eradicate the problem. So when this project came up, I thought, wow, I can finally help this women - maybe find out why and do something about it. So that's how the project came about.

Hilary 
Thank you, Margaret. And can you now explain what we mean by fistula and why does this happen?

Margaret
Fistula is the condition - it's a tear between the vagina, bladder, and rectum. And it happens because of prolonged labour, often after a baby too. Unfortunately, it happens in young women and why? First of all, they're married very young, their bodies haven't matured. And also they've got very small pelvis anyway. So as children, it's almost impossible to deliver a baby. They're in labour for five days, the poor baby stretches their bodies, and they're in horrific dilemma. And it's too expensive to take a woman to a hospital. So they suffer this indignity. Unfortunately, it really ruins their lives.

Hilary
So in what way does it ruin their lives? Why is it so difficult for them?

Margaret
The fistula, because it's a connection between the bladder and maybe the bladder and rectum. These poor women are leaking faeces, urine. They're ostracised by the family, by the community, they lose their dignity completely, they lose their independence. It's a terrible situation.

Hilary
They lose all and dignity and they appear to smell is that right? And so the family just throws them out. So what options are there? What can be done to help these women?

Margaret
Well, there is a lot that can be held to done to help these women. Catherine Hamlin in Ethiopia and her husband, over 60 years ago, noticed what was happening and started helping them and that's how they built the fistula hospital. When I heard about it,  I said, 'Okay, that's going to be my project.' I asked, 'how can we help?' Many operations are carried out in Ethiopia, but 7% of the women cannot be cured. And what I mean by cannot be cured is they cannot have a baby again, which means they've had to have a hysterectomy. Because of the horrific injuries, they may have had to have their bladder removed. And so, they end up with a colostomy or an ileostomy, which means they need regular medical attention. These women were housed in a village called the Desta Mender Village - a village started by Australian overseas aid for these women to be housed and to be near the hospital. And that's the option I chose to help the women. So that instead of just sitting waiting for their regular appointments, we could restore their dignity and give them a sustainable future. We started the project by helping them with literacy, numeracy, and minor business skills, cooking and hospitality skills. Our funds from Soroptimist International managed to build the Juniper Cafe. The Juniper Cafe at the Desta Mender Village is so called because of the beautiful juniper trees around it. Now these girls have done brilliantly - they cook, they serve. The cafe is so popular so they've had to extend it. And fortunately, our funds were sufficient for them to extend it. Not only that, it actually built a restaurant, which they can serve dinners and have functions. They built a small sewing room for craft work. So we are absolutely delighted with our project.

Hilary
I think it was the most amazing project and to restore the dignity to these women when they've been completely thrown out of their own communities for something that's not their fault. It's just such a heartwarming story to know that you can change the lives of these women.

Margaret
We've restored their dignity. And above all, we've sustained their future. They are now independent.

Hilary 
That's the most important thing. So thank you very much for being with us in this podcast today. And I'm now going to turn to another Soroptimists to tell us something about Project Sierra. So I'm going to turn to Alison Sutherland but thank you, Margaret, for sharing with us.

Margaret 
Thank you very much.

Hilary
So to my second guest now who is another Soroptimist. Her name is Alison Sutherland. She spearheaded 'Project Sierra: A Family and Future' which was based in Sierra Leone. So Alison, could you explain the challenging issues that led to the setting up of this project?

Alison  (Guest 2)
Hilary, hello, thank you. Yes. Well Sierra Leone had not long emerged from a 10 year very brutal Civil War. Thousands of people were killed. And in fact, over the half the population of the country had been displaced. Communities were completely shattered and traumatised, and children suffered terribly. During this time, many thousands were orphaned children were separated from their families, and many thousands abducted or lured into to living with armed groups and rebel groups. Rape, sexual abuse and exploitation of girls was rife. At this time, which was 2007, when the project started, one in eight girls had given birth by the age of 15. And that's the sort of scale of how terrible things were. So a very high proportion of the population faced extreme poverty, and very high infant and maternal mortality rates as well. The project was really conceived and done in the context of rebuilding lives in the aftermath of this very severe conflict with a specific focus on rebuilding stable family life for children, especially for girls. Seeing that stable family life is absolutely essential for both individual welfare and to help families and communities to embrace their most vulnerable members at very trying times.

Hilary
Yes. So it was a terrible time for Sierra Leone. So what kind of interventions could we as Soroptimists and other women develop that tried to restore long term change in the communities in Sierra Leone?

Alison 
Well, the project worked in a number of communities, both urban and rural. And the main elements of the programmes involve several key themes: strengthening of family ties and reconnecting families was the sort of fundamental. Providing education, health services and health education for the most vulnerable and providing training, economic support or grants so that families could become self sufficient financially. And helping to improve or stabilise basic living conditions. But if I can give you two examples of programmes that that we ran,  which covered all of these elements. A flagship programme worked with teenage mums, and these were very young mothers who had been isolated, destitute, completely shunned by their families and communities. And we supported them to go back to school, or those who felt unable to return to school to train for a vocation such as catering or tailoring, sewing, hairdressing, or another profession if that's what they wanted to do. For example, there was one young woman who wanted to be a mechanic, and another wanted to be a plumber. So the project helped them to find apprenticeships and training. And whilst the girls, the teenage mums, were at school, Monday to Friday, or in their training place, their babies were cared for the day nursery. They were given meals, medical care, looked after, play activities. And in addition, after school and on Saturdays, the young mums were given very intensive counselling and social worker support, group sessions, classes on nutrition, health, confidence building, that sort of thing. And also an opportunity for them to play sports, sing and dance together, and be teenagers and children because although they were young mums, they were after all really children. Also home visits to support these found young families to build relationships with their wider family or neighbourhood. Another limb of the project supported grandparents and it was usually grandmother-headed households. These were in rural areas, very remote rural areas, where many of the young adults had been killed or had run away from the conflict. They were targets within the conflict. The elderly and the very young, were left behind. In this particular part of the programme, we supported some of the poorest of the poor. People who were living in really desperate poverty, we enabled them to send their children to school. So all the children would attend school, and also helped to rebuild modest homes and give grants so that the families could become self reliant - a grant or support to, for example, establish a small garden or small-scale trade. And a really important aspect of this. Part of the programme, again, was the whole community engagement because the community itself identified the neediest people. The community actually helped to provide the labour to build or repair the homes, whilst the project purchased the building materials. And this sort of integrated approach was designed to build self-reliance, give the children a stable home with education, and enable families to rejoin the social and economic life of the community.

Hilary 
I think that was what was so important about the project, wasn't it Alison? I remember going into one of the villages to visit one of these grandparent households. An old lady, a grandparent, came running out to us, hugged us, insisted on giving us some eggs, and thanked us because we'd enabled her to learn to make mats that she was taking to the market. She could then sell the mats, come home, she had money to help her grandchildren to go to school to have education. And the community was helping the family and I've never forgotten that. So what significant differences do you think were achieved by this project? And what kind of lessons can we learn from Project Sierra?

Alison 
Well, starting with the families. Some research was done three years after the programme finished and of over 500 families who were supported in the Active Family Support part of the project - over 500 families caring in total for about 1400 children. Three years after the programme ended, over 90% were still self-reliant and actually contributing to life and the economy of their villages. The Teenage Mothers programme again, over 400 young teenage mothers were supported and about the same number of of babies was supported. Three years after the programme, over 90% of those were in full-time employment, or were successfully running their own small businesses. Many of these young girls were mentors and role models for others within the community. So that was extremely significant number, I think, of young women and families whose lives had actually been transformed. Communities were also strengthened and attitudes changed, because they could could see how these people who had been shunned and really in desperate situations, their lives have been transformed and they could become active members of the community. So the project was part of the general picture of positive change, rebuilding the country after after the war. I think another  really important aspect was the fact that the programmes were delivered entirely by local Sierra Leonean social workers, community workers. And that helped because they knew the communities, they knew the context. And so the support could be tailored in the most effective way. Also running such a complex programme, because it was lots of integrated components in very, very difficult circumstances, actually helped to bring up the professional skills base within the country. Staff that had been working on the programme, they became trainers and leaders in child protection and family welfare within the country and many doing that still today. Also through the links with Soroptimist International and our international partner, Open Homes for Children, the teams were able to link with an international network of social workers, programme managers and professionals. Lessons from the project, stories from the project, were shared and informed Child Protection good practice in other countries.

Hilary  
Thank you, Alison. I think that's so important isn't it, that the work is embraced by the communities that you're trying to work with. And change happens involving the communities you work with. So  Project Sierra was a fantastic project. I think any of us who visited were so impressed. I remember going into the training school for the young girls, being welcomed in with them dancing and welcoming and the showing us their skills for doing hairdressing. They cooked a meal for us. And then we saw the babies who were being looked after in the nursery. A fantastic project. And thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about it and the work that you did for it. Alison, really appreciate your time. So I feel in both these projects, women from Soroptimist International have made a real difference by supporting women and giving them back their dignity and turning them from victims to survivors. So my theme was tough women and tough issues, which I think they were and these have made a difference. So any of you listening I think can make a difference, however small, by taking action. Be tough. Ask tough questions. Help to change the world for better for women and girls.

Outro
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