Updates
Thank you Jan 22, 2019
I am so touched, thank you for this gift for me and my child. When I had a fistula for fifteen years I was thinking I was alone and I did not know what was happening with my body. Now I can earn money. I am healthy and this gift will help me sell more clothes in my shop. Thank you.
Overview
My name is Elizabeth and I am a 35 year old single mother. At age 20 I became pregnant and gave birth to my only child. During that difficult labor I developed a fistula, but I did not understand what it was. I lived with it for 15 years until I got surgically repaired this year.
My goals is to expand my small clothing shop so I won’t be struggling so much to support myself and my child. I have owned and run a small shop where I sell clothes for the past several years; it is a struggle every day to make ends meet and the smell and stigma of my fistula drove people away from my shop. Now I am healed and want the business to grow.
I need funds ($200) to buy a plot of land and expand my business. I want to have a larger shop with a bigger range of merchandise so that my business thrives and my child and I won’t be scraping by. I will use the land to grow food to help feed my child and myself. If there is extra food, I can sell the extra crops at my shop.
Meeting this need will help me move forward because now that I am healed from my fistula, I am physically able to work faster and work longer hours. I want to provide for my child with my new health, but I need these funds to help us get off the ground.
Need funded!
Thank you for helping Elizabeth fund this need.
3 supporters
This need has been validated by Debra from Beyond Fistula
Recent supporters
- $20
- $50
Validated
Validated by Debra from Beyond Fistula (What does this mean?)
Each need is validated by a nonprofit that knows the person and can verify that the help is necessary. Funds flow from Benevolent to the nonprofit, which then gets them to the person in need and lets us know how it went.
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Elizabeth has been struggling to provide for her and her child. She had been living with the stigma of having an obstetric fistula, which caused the people from her village to avoid buying items from her shop- they believed she was cursed or contagious. Now that she is repaired and no longer leaking, she has renewed strength and energy to return to her shop and to expand her business. She has a great business plan and is also interested in leasing some land to grow crops. She recently completed a business and farm skills training program through our organization, Beyond Fistula. Our team will be following up with Elizabeth and supporting her in her efforts to support herself and her child.
About Debra
I am the co-founder and Executive Director of Beyond Fistula. I founded the nonprofit in 2012 after seeing how much these young Kenyan women needed help rebuilding their lives after recovering from a childbirth injury known as obstetric fistula. I am endlessly motivated by their hope and tenacity… Read more