Equatorial Guinea - Campaign to End Fistula

In each site surveyed, the pollster showed their credentials signed by local authorities to facilitate
contacts and collaboration with Heads of all village councils and neighborhood communities, seek their
certifications for the effective realisation within their areas, as it was stated during the training sesions
and orientation to pollsters and supervisors. In each different site (VC and NC, health center, hospital,
etc.) the differents stages followed by pollsters were the following:
- Contacts with local authorities of all communities, one day before the survey in order to inform them
on the matter as a government priority, with assistance of the UNFPA and the European Union;
- Meeting with the local population, called upon by the President, the following day, at a convinient
place chosen by local authorities to explain the context of the survey as well as to select the
specific place to deal with the patients with obstetric fistula in addition to other women desseases
and health problems, to facilitate the identification of obstetric fistula cases. In the case of low
participation of community members, the pollsters visited all houses explaining family members and
others ,the problem of obstetric fistula to avoid losing all opportunities of detection of obstetric
fistula cases in the site;
- Interviews at district level with hospital directors, health personnel (doctors, gynecologists,
midwives, nurses, etc.) as well as traditional midwives at community level;
- Interviews with all women identified with obstetric fistula, using the necessary tools prepared for the
survey;
- Gratefulness to the community and all council members and neighborhood communities, by the
pollsters and supervisors ensuring that women with obstetrict fistula and their families will have the
opportunity to benefit from assistance and free reparations by the Government, UNFPA and the
European Union.
In fact, the survey was conducted globaly through interviews with the convened tools during the training
sessions of pollsters which was addressed to health personnel to evaluate the capacities of the
infrastructures for reparation of obstetric fistula; to evaluate the knowledge level of all health agents on
obstetric fistula as well as the situation of women themselves living with obstetric fistula at family and
social environment.
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