Cicile Ahamogbe stands in front of a room full people. Tears well up in her eyes. “If I cry,” she says, “they are tears of joy. I could stand here forever, and cry and cry and cry tears of joy. Dr. Arrowsmith and all the nurses, how can I thank you?”

Cicile, 44 years old, suffered from a condition called vesicovaginal fistula, or VVF. This problem, common in countries where there is a lack of obstetric care, occurs when a woman is in labor for long periods of time without medical help. The pressure of the baby causes a hole to form between the bladder and the vagina. The result is an uncontrolled flow of urine.

Cicile endured unbearable situations. She was incontinent for a year and a half, and she was treated as an outcast because of the odor of urine. The problem was caused when she was in labor for three days before finally receiving a cesarean section. Her beautiful daughter, Destino, is lucky to be alive.

Cicile lives in Kpalime, a town about three hours north of Lomé. She learned to cope with her problem during the day by going to the bathroom constantly. But at night the problem was most evident. She explains, “I would wake up in the night with the children sleeping in my bed, and we would all be wet—the blanket, my clothes, their clothes, everything.”

It became very difficult for Cicile to provide for her children. Sometimes her husband sent money, but for the most part Cicile had little or no money to feed or clothe her kids. The incontinence kept her in her house—very alone.

Before coming to the Africa Mercy, Cecile did not know anyone who had the same problem as she did. Once she arrived at the hospital ship, however, she met several women just like her, and she will return to Kpalime with a support system that will be invaluable. She says, “It helps to know others like you. I hope that we will all leave here dry. I have faith that the doctors and nurses of Mercy Ships can take care of us.”

Cicile in the hospitality center

Cicile’s faith held true. Today, she attends her dress ceremony. She stands in a maroon dress with a white beaded necklace. She smells of lavender. She is surrounded by four other women. She is crying tears of joy. After two surgeries by VVF surgeon Dr. Steve Arrowsmith, Cicile stands triumphant. “I am dry!” she exclaims. “I am dry forever!”

Cicile in her new dress

The dress ceremony celebrates rebirth. The women who have successful surgeries are given a new life, and that calls for celebration! They are no longer outcasts, and they are able to stand among their peers without shame. It is a wonderful day when VVF ladies, like Cicile, get to dance in a dress ceremony.

Cicile knows she is blessed. She poignantly states, “Thanks to Mercy Ships, today my beauty has been restored. The ugliness is gone.”

–From CWR partner, Mercy Ships. Cicile was a beneficiary of our recent project in Togo.

As a woman who has been privileged to grow up in the United States, I take certain things about my health for granted. Some things just seem like a given. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to serve with one of Covenant World Relief’s partners’ Mercy Ships onboard the Africa Mercy. Mercy Ships is an organization that uses hospital ships to provide free medical care and other resources to underdeveloped countries primarily in West Africa. I served with the Africa Mercy during its outreach in Liberia, and was able to see up close some of the healing and restoration that happens everyday. When there are less than four dentists in a country, you can only begin to imagine the difficulty in receiving medical care.

For many women in these countries, their greatest difficulty comes when they are giving birth. Since there is such limited care, many women experience what is known as a vesicovaginal fistula, or VVF, during childbirth. There are complications with the labor so that the women will be in labor for hours, sometimes even days, and will finally deliver a stillborn child. In addition to the sorrow and grief of losing a child, the trauma of the labor to their bodies leaves these women incontinent and excluded from society.  Many who had jobs before this now are put out of business and are forced to endure humiliation from the smell.

During my stay on the ship I befriended one such girl named Betty whose family had been forced to live in the bush after her father was killed during the Liberian Civil War. There she had met a married man and began an affair, only to become pregnant and give birth to a stillborn child and developed a VVF. It was devastating to hear her talk about the struggles that she had endured. But her powerful faith in a good and loving God amazed me, and I was so grateful that she had a chance to undergo a relatively easy surgery to correct the issue so that she would never have to be wet again.

When these women come to the ship, their lives are characterized by loneliness and shame. But through these surgeries they are restored with a sense of dignity and joy. When they leave the ship they are given a new dress to remind them of the new life they have been given through the grace of God. Please pray for the women of Togo, where the ships is currently stationed and CWR is partnering with Mercy Ships, that they may come to know God’s healing love through the chance for a new life because of these VVF surgeries.

–Written by Lizzy Dodd, intern with Covenant World Relief and senior at North Park University.