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PhotosThe following is a selection of photos from the "Fistula Fortnight" at Babbar Ruga Fistula Hospital, Katsina, Nigeria. Photos are available in both low and high resolution, all of them copyright © Richard Stanley. You can also view these photos and others as a Slide Show. ......................................................... .........................................................
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Many women traveled considerable distances to receive medical care — some from as far as Niger — bringing children and families with them.
Some fistula patients were also "active participants" in the cleaning and sterilizing of Babbar Ruga's operating theatre and wards, notes UK filmmaker Richard Stanley. This photo was taken on the eve of the Fortnight in the hospital's post-operative ward.
Women in this photograph await fistula surgery in a corridor outside the hospital's operating theatre. The average cost of fistula surgery is USD $300, well beyond the reach of most women with the condition. During the Fortnight, all women were treated free of charge. 
"I suffered a lot during labour," says Zainab Abdu, pictured here. "When I was in that agony, I was thinking: 'Is this the way other women suffered?' I sought help but nobody was ready to assist me." Zainab was one of hundreds of women and young girls treated for obstetric fistula during the Fortnight. 
When Dr. Idriss Halliru (seen here with a patient) was approached in 1995 to train with Dutch surgeon Kees Waaldijk, he readily took up the challenge. In his five years at the Babbar Ruga Fistula Centre, Halliru acquired the skills to be an expert fistula surgeon.
In this image, a nurse attends to a fistula patient in the recovery room immediately after surgery. Dozens of specially trained nurses and social workers deployed to the four "Fistula Fortnight" treatment sites ensured that patients received appropriate post-operative care and counselling. 
"Fistula is so preventable. I just hate to think what these women's lives would be like without this surgery," says Dr. Gloria Esegbona, pictured here on the grounds of the Babbar Ruga Fistula Hospital.
