Jatu

Jatu doesn’t know how old she is. Her playful grin bright pink polka dot nail polish seem to place her somewhere in the early stages of adolescence. For the purposes of medical records she says she’s 15 but her doctor indicates that may say more about her age in experience than accumulated years.

Recounting her story, Jatu tells how after two years of marriage, becoming pregnant demonstrated her worth to her husband and parents.

But a long, tragic birthing process left her with a stillborn child, incontinence and despair. She had developed an obstetric fistula.

“Young brides in Africa are a lot smaller,” explained Mercy Ships surgeon Dr Judith Goh, “but the bottom line is that there are no emergency obstetric surgeries available if there is a problem.”

While Jatu’s family sought out the means to find Jatu help, she recalls that it was her father-in-law who finally heard of Mercy Ships and the possibility of a free surgery.

“I was nervous to come,” said Jatu but, she said, “I am sure I will get healing here.”

And Jatu did find healing. After a simple operation, Jatu returned to her family completely dry.

Jatu returned to her village to continue her life as a wife and, she hopes, future mother. She returns to a culture steeped in tradition and bound by poverty, miles from a hospital, doctors or nurses, surrounded by other child brides, all of them susceptible to preventable conditions like obstetric fistula.

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