Eunice’s Story: Healing, Community, and a Future Rebuilt
In Bungoma County, Kenya, Eunice developed obstetric fistula while giving birth to her third child. The injury left her with continuous, uncontrollable leakage and quickly changed the way people around her treated her. Ostracized by her community and deeply ashamed, Eunice withdrew from others and lived a secluded life with her children.
For three years, she carried the physical and emotional burden of fistula. Over time, the isolation wore down her hope. Looking back on that period, Eunice remembers believing that nothing would change.
“I lost hope of ever getting better.”
That began to shift when Eunice met Florence, a fistula survivor who understood what she was living through. Florence introduced her to Let’s End Fistula Initiative, or LEFI, and Eunice became connected with the Cheptais Solidarity Group.
For the first time in years, she was surrounded by women who understood her experience.
“I was welcomed into a Solidarity Group where I was glad to meet fellow fistula survivors.”
With support from LEFI and the group, Eunice began her journey toward healing and recovery. As her physical health improved, something else began to return too: her sense of possibility. She was no longer facing fistula alone, and the community around her helped her begin imagining what life could look like beyond the injury.
The Solidarity Group also encouraged Eunice to rebuild financially. She began saving money and used the financial skills training she received through LEFI to start a small bread-baking business. What began modestly grew into a local eatery.
Her confidence grew with it.
Motivated by that progress, Eunice took a small loan through her Solidarity Group and opened a dry goods store. She eventually became the main supplier of beans in her community, creating another dependable source of income for herself and her children.
Eunice continued building from there. She purchased chickens and goats and was able to buy land for herself and her four children. Each step gave her greater stability and more control over the future she was creating for her family.
Her story shows what can happen when treatment is paired with community and economic opportunity. Healing helped Eunice regain her health, but the Solidarity Group gave her a place to belong, financial training gave her tools to move forward, and access to savings and credit helped turn those skills into something lasting.
Today, Eunice’s life is no longer defined by the years she spent isolated by fistula. She is a business owner, a provider, and a source of inspiration in the same community where she once felt pushed aside.
Help Recovery Grow Into Independence
For women like Eunice, healing can open the door to much more than physical recovery. With community, skills, and economic opportunity, survivors can rebuild livelihoods and shape their own futures.
Your support helps locally led partners provide the treatment, reintegration, and financial empowerment women need to move forward.
