A salve amid Darfur woes: better midwives
International relief groups are training Darfuri women to ameliorate Sudan's maternal mortality rates – the fifth highest in the world.
from the July 10, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
Married at age 10; difficult birth
All the students has come here because they have suffered complicated births themselves.
Some, like Aziza Jiddu Suleiman, were married off at an early age, a tradition that persists among the Fur and Arab tribes of the Darfur region, and have lived lives that would make Charles Dickens shudder.
Married at age 10, she became pregnant almost immediately.
The birth was complicated; Ms. Suleiman, still a child, lost her baby and suffered an injury that left her unable to control her urine.
Her husband divorced her soon afterward, citing unpleasant side-effects of her injury, and her inability to bear further children. She was just 11 years old.
For the next nine years, she sought shelter, work as a cleaner, and eventual treatment for her condition (called fistula) at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in Al Fasher, also funded by UNFPA.
Now 20, Suleiman has decided to turn her tragic life into a source of strength for others. She wants to become a midwife.
"I feel two feelings about my life," says Suleiman, smiling and cracking her knuckles. "First I felt weak because, although I was not assaulted, I was ignored by others because of my problem. But I also feel strong, because I'm going to help others to avoid this same problem in the future."
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