There was a time when Rehana Qadri thought her life was over. A traumatic childbirth left her with an obstetric fistula, a condition that changed everything, her body, her family, and her place in the world.

“I lost my health, my husband, my home, and worst of all, my children. It felt like I had been erased from life.”

Her condition was not only painful, but deeply isolating. Rejected by her in-laws and abandoned by her husband, Rehana was left to survive with nothing but the support of her parents and a fading sense of hope.

“We went from city to city, Sukkur, Ghotki, Rahim Yar Khan, trying to find help. Every time, it felt like another door closed, then someone told us about Koohi Goth Hospital in Karachi. That was the first time I felt like maybe things could change.”

It was at Koohi Goth Women Hospital that Rehana received the care she had long been searching for. Her surgery was successful. But something else happened in that hospital room - something even more life-changing.

“I saw the nurses and midwives working with so much love. I thought, maybe I can be like them. Maybe I can help women who feel as broken as I once did.”

Though her family resisted the idea at first, Rehana was determined. With Koohi Goth’s full support and all her training expenses covered, she enrolled in the hospital’s midwifery programme supported by UNFPA.

Two years later, Rehana graduated with pride and purpose.

“Wearing that uniform for the first time, I felt like I had taken my life back, I wasn’t just healed - I was whole.”

Today, Rehana works at Koohi Goth Hospital as a midwife, standing shoulder to shoulder with the very doctors and nurses who once cared for her. Her experience and skill helped her climb the ladder, now she is In-charge of Fistula ward. She helps women arrive safely into motherhood and more importantly, ensures they never have to face what she did alone.

“Every time I care for a fistula patient, I see myself in her, and I want her to feel what I felt here: that she matters, and that she can come back to life.”

Rehana's journey from abandonment to dignity is more than a personal victory, it’s a hope for countless other women whose pain often goes unseen.

“My children are still away, but now I have a new family here. And for the first time, I wake up proud of who I am. I survived and now, I help others do the same.”