ACCESS BANK PROVIDES SUPPORT TO TREAT 100 FISTULA PATIENTS

Access Bank Ghana has launched an Obstetric Fistula campaign dubbed “Fist Against Fistula,” to help treat women and also create awareness about the condition among women in Ghana. 

Launched by the Honourable Minister for Gender, Children & Social Protection, Madame Otiko Djaba, the campaign forms will see Access Bank provide free surgeries for One Hundred (100) women throughout the country, in partnership with Kaysens Gaisie Ltd, the Mercy Women’s Catholic Hospital, UNFPA as well as the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. 

About two (2) million women are currently living with the Obstetric Fistula condition around the globe, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has indicated. Available statistics by the Ghana Health Service, 2016, indicates that over 1,300 Obstetric Fistula cases are recorded annually in Ghana. 

Speaking at the launch, Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr. Ifeanyi Njoku explained that Access Bank embarked on this campaign because the statistics surrounding the disease in Ghana are very alarming. “As a leading bank in Africa, we would like to be a relevant stakeholder, an active partner and contributor in the fight against Obstetric Fistula to eradicate the condition not just in Ghana but in Africa.” 

Mr. Njoku noted that despite a decade of the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) campaign to end Obstetric Fistula, the country is still overwhelmed with the condition. He called on Ghanaians to embrace the campaign to intensify public education to save Fistula is a medical condition in women as a result of prolonged or obstructed labor. They tend to leak urine and faeces through the birth canal. They end up being neglected and isolated.