A group of childless women from Thika have shocked many people after they announced their plans to hold a fundraiser to enable them to get medical help.
The members of the Erohim Women’s Group on Wednesday said they are determined to have their own children to save their marriages. The group has 10 members.
With the money they will get from the fundraiser, the women are intending to go through In Vitro Fertilisation, which they are certain will end the embarrassment that comes with being childless.
The members of the group told the Star they can no longer sit and watch helplessly as their marriages fall apart. They also said people harass them.
IVF is a process where an egg is combined with a sperm outside the body.
The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman’s ovulation process by removing an ovum from the woman’s ovaries and letting the sperm fertilise it in a laboratory.
The fertilised egg is cultured for two to six days in a growth medium, before it is transferred to the same or another woman’s uterus with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy. In Kenyan hospitals, a woman is charged Sh400,000 to undergo the IVF procedure. Many are unable to raise that amount of money.
Group chairlady Esther Wanjiku, 40, said they want to hold the fundraiser soon.
She said the huge amount of money required is beyond their capability and they hope the fundraiser will help them fulfill their desire of becoming mothers. “Monetary constraints are holding us back from achieving what we’ve desired to get in our lives. We believe that when we get the cash, every member of our group will get her own children,” Wanjiku said.
wants state to set aside funds
Wanjiku urged the government to set aside money to treat women or childless couples, just as expectant mothers have been benefitting from free maternity services in public hospitals. The group is appealing for help from well-wishers to help them overcome their predicament.
They raised concerns about what they termed “greedy gynaecologists”, who they claimed are only focussed on raking in money from desperate childless women.
The women said the African culture has not helped them either, adding that children are normally viewed as part and parcel of a complete family unit.
They said childlessness has put a strain on their marriages and brought in a myriad of challenges, especially from in-laws.
Wanjiku said she has been married for 18 years and she has unsuccessfully tried every trick in the book to get a child.
She said she has only known ridicule, embarrassment and abuse from friends, relatives and other members of society.
Wanjiku said she and her husband have visited numerous hospitals. “Sometimes I spurn myself for not being able to bear children like other women. My 18 years of marriage has been a nightmare,” she said.
Teresia Wanjiku, 50, from Muthaiga estate in Thika town, said even after undergoing two surgeries, she has not been able to give birth.
She said her 16-year-old marriage crumbled in 2014.
Wanjiku narrated to the Star how close friends and relatives deserted her after realising she could not bear children.
society cruelty
“Society is very cruel and judgmental. Being childless is the worst tragedy that can ever happen to a woman. It’s better to be disabled than fail to bear children,” Wanjiku said.
However, despite the setback of being childless and her age, she is still optimistic she will one day bear a child. “I’ve never lost hope that one day I will hold my own child in my arms. God is faithful and I know he will make a way for us,” Wanjiku said.
It is the same scenario for Nancy Wangari from Kiganjo and Priscilla Kamene from the Kiandutu slums, who have been married for 14 and eight years, respectively.
Wangari said despite using Sh500,000 in four surgeries to unblock her fallopian tubes, nothing has changed. “There’s no trick I haven’t tried. Even using traditional herbs believed to improve chances of conceiving, but nothing worked,” she said.
Wangari said her husband gave up and they separated after 14 years of marriage.
“I haven’t lost hope. I still believe that I will get my own children,” she said.
Kamene, a salonist, whose marriage now faces turbulence, said she has been into seven hospitals. “My marriage is hanging in the balance. I’m losing hope because I have drained all my savings trying to get medical help,” she said.
Kamene said she almost lost hope when a gynaecologist told her that out of 20 women he has treated, only one has been successful.