#beyond fistula

[woodsfae]

I know, I know, it's been a few weeks since I did a Babylon 5 episode liveblog - but never fear! The project isn't abandoned. I'm just trying to stuff as much outdoor, active, fun stuff as possible into the end of this month before I have surgery and am stuck in bed for awhile.

So really, this is good news! I started this while drugged up recovering from wisdom teeth surgery, and will be continuing the trend very shortly!

Tomorrow I'm doing a charity bike ride - check it out if you feel like it! TL;DR (because there's a lot of text on the linked page!) my beneficiaries are a community bike shop, a local (to me) compost non-profit, and a cause that's not so much near-and-dear to my heart as "makes me clench my hoo-hah in horror every time I think about it." It's Beyond Fistula, an organization that does surgery on people with fistulas in medically under-served areas and trains them to re-enter the workforce.

Fistula definition under the cut:

A medical injury most often caused by childbirth in which there is a hole between the person's vagina and colon.

It is easily reparable with surgery, but in countries affected by colonialism, that access often doesn't exist, and the people affected are often outcast from their communities, as there's a massive stigma against the affected people.

The stigma exists because a fistula causes unstoppable seepage of fecal material out of the person's vagina. You may, at this point, understand my reflexive vag-clenching horror.