Bwalya Magawa Chomba is a Social Worker & Public Health Specialist, Maternal & Child Health Advocate, and Obstetric Fistula Champion, recognized globally as a 2023 Heroine of Health (Women in Global Health) and 2025 Zee Women’s Banking Award Winner (Woman Catalyst for Change). With 20 years of experience in social work and public health, she is dedicated to transforming lives through maternal and child health advocacy, obstetric fistula care, and community mobilization. Her work bridges grassroots realities with systemic change, ensuring vulnerable women have access to dignity, quality care, and opportunities to thrive.
Developing the First National Obstetric Fistula Strategic Plan for the Ministry of Health
For nearly 15 years, I battled hormonal imbalances that led to secondary infertility. Living in rural Mpika, Zambia, accessing specialist treatment meant grueling journeys to Kabwe and Lusaka to find gynecologists who could help. I was fortunate, I had a job and a supportive partner who made these trips possible. But I knew many women in my community weren’t as lucky.
Everything changed in 2009 when I began working for Africare Zambia under a maternal neonatal child health program. That’s when I met a woman whose story would reshape my entire life’s purpose.
She told me about losing her baby during childbirth and being left with obstetric fistula – a condition that caused her to leak urine uncontrollably. As she shared her pain, shame, and isolation, I realized something profound: there were women facing far more serious challenges than my own fertility struggles.
That moment ignited a fire within me. I dedicated all my energy to finding these women in our communities and ensuring they received the treatment they desperately needed. When that project ended, I felt lost – until 2017, when I found my way to the Fistula Foundation.
I contributed to the development of the first ever national obstetric fistula strategic plan for the Ministry of Health and the review of the national training manual for safe motherhood action group members to include fistula key messages which was not part of the training curriculum. I’m proud to say that there won’t be a mention of obstetric fistula in Zambia without my name in that story!
Fighting Skeptics and Stigma: "Not Being Medical Personnel Made People Doubt Me"
Not being medical personnel sometimes put me in positions where people doubted my capabilities. But I proved myself through results, becoming the crucial connection between women with fistula and life-changing treatment services. The Fistula Foundation has made this possible by providing completely free services; from community mobilization and patient identification to transport and actual treatment.
Obstetric Fistula was rarely talked about which was difficult to have a breakthrough of seeing more women coming out in the open to access treatment, I overcame this through continuously raising awareness using different platforms.
Under my leadership since 2017:
- Over 2,500 women have received life-changing treatment
- 8 hospitals now perform fistula surgery (previously, options were extremely limited)
- Routine surgery is now available – women no longer wait years for treatment
- 15 fistula surgeons at various levels now serve Zambia, up from just 5
- Over 40 nurses have been trained in fistula patient care and management
“Just because the rivers are calm doesn’t mean there are no crocodiles."
“Just because the rivers are calm doesn’t mean there are no crocodiles.” So it is with fistula and other childbirth injuries. There are far more women suffering in silence from the shame of fistula than those we have been able to treat. We must continue raising awareness until, one day, that woman in isolation finds the strength to step forward and access the treatment she deserves.”
