By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2023-08-24

Injuries resulting from a difficult home birth caused tremendous pain and psychological suffering to 23-year-old Sanaa resident Suad, who described her ordeal to Al-Fassel using a pseudonym.

"I was ashamed and isolated myself from everyone, including my husband, and I stopped working," said the mother of two, who suffered from obstetric fistula, one of the most serious childbirth injuries.

"But I summoned up the courage and went to the obstetric fistula treatment center at al-Thawra Hospital in Sanaa," Suad said.

The condition is caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to professional medical treatment and can cause symptoms that are both painful and socially isolating.

"I underwent the surgery and was treated free of charge, and now my life has returned to normal," Suad said.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is working with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide free healthcare services to the most vulnerable women and girls in Yemen.

Between January and June this year, UNFPA reached nearly one million people with life-saving reproductive health services, protection from violence and emergency relief.

USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance provided $23 million to UNFPA to provide emergency relief and protective and life-saving reproductive health services to 1.3 million of the most vulnerable women and girls in Yemen.

This will contribute to the provision of services in 14 hospitals and four mobile clinics, UNFPA said in a July 29 statement.

Twenty safe spaces for women and girls also will be supported as part of psychosocial care and immediate life-saving assistance to families fleeing conflicts or natural disasters through the UNFPA rapid response mechanism.

Urgent healthcare needs

"The needs of women and girls in Yemen remain huge and urgent," said UNFPA representative in Yemen Inshirah Ahmed.

"This generous contribution will enable UNFPA and its partners to continue providing protective and health services to women and girls to save their lives amid one of the worst crises in the world," Ahmed said.

According to UNFPA, more than five million women and girls of childbearing age suffer from limited or no access to reproductive health services, including 1.5 million pregnant women who suffer from acute malnutrition.

UNFPA launched a medical campaign in May to treat obstetric fistula free of charge at al-Thawra Hospital in Sanaa and al-Sadaqa Hospital in Aden.

The clinics were offered at al-Mukalla Hospital in July and at al-Thawra Hospital in al-Hodeidah province in August.

"The obstetric fistula treatment units receive patients, perform the examination and diagnosis, and then set the date of the surgery," said obstetric fistula program coordinator Altaf Sharafeddine.

The program is affiliated with Yemen's Ministry of Public Health and supported by UNFPA, and provides free medical care and medicine to treat the condition.

Obstetric fistula is "a silent disease, and many infected women are ashamed to say they have it despite its negative effects on physical and psychological health," Sharafeddine said.

Providing psychological support

Family Development and Guidance Foundation program coordinator Omar al-Fadhli told Al-Fassel the foundation provides psychiatric services and psychotherapy free of charge at its psychological counseling center.

"The center receives between 100 and 200 patients daily, and they receive medical services and medicines free of charge thanks to the contribution of supporters, led by UNFPA," he said.

The foundation also offers a hotline for psychological and family counseling, he said.

"The UN estimates that about 22 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance, more than half of whom are girls and women," said Jihan Abdul Aziz, a psychologist with al-Tahadi Association for Physically Disabled Females in Sanaa.

"In the course of my work last year at al-Amal Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases in Sanaa, I found that the community tries to silence mentally ill patients if they are females," she said.

"This exacerbates the psychological condition and compounds the problem."

Abdul Aziz said women suffer the most during times of war, as they shoulder the burden within the family, often setting their own problems to the side.

"UNFPA statistics indicate that women and children constitute about 80% of the 4.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Yemen," she said.

A full 26% of displaced families in Yemen are headed by women, she added, "and this shows part of the suffering of women caused by the war."