SCOTTISH BUSINESSWOMAN Ann Gloag yesterday launched a charity aimed at helping women in Africa through pregnancy and childbirth.

More than 100 women joined Stagecoach founder Ms Gloag at her Perthshire home, Kinfauns Castle, for the launch of the Freedom From Fistula Foundation.

The charity has been formed in response to the estimated two million women in Africa suffering from obstetric fistula, a severe condition caused by obstructed childbirth.

Ms Gloag’s foundation aims to help vulnerable women receive healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as providing free surgeries to expectant mothers who are injured during labour due to lack of medical care.

To help prevent the occurrence of fistulas, the foundation will also fund the training of local birth attendants.

Ms Gloag said prevention was the long-term solution to the problem.

“These women are mothers, daughters, aunts—they are just like us—yet they are condemned to a life of shame and isolation because they become incontinent due to their fistulas and are outcast by their families and communities.

“What woman in this country can imagine giving birth to a stillborn baby and being left incontinent as a result?

“It is unthinkable to us, yet millions of women are suffering silently and they have no-one speaking up for them.”

The foundation was backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah, who said, “The launch of The Freedom From Fistula Foundation brings hope to women who have been suffering in silence for far too long.”

The charity is already working with Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to bring a dedicated fistula department to the main hospital in the capital Monrovia.

Information about the work of the foundation can be found at www.freedomfromfistula.org.uk