From Personal Struggle to Purpose-Driven Innovation (Humble Beginnings – 2007)

Sarah Omega began carrying out grassroots community outreach in 2007 after a successful surgical treatment that ended her 12 years of living with Fistula. With Sarah’s little earnings from her hair salon business,where she would work for 3 days and use the remainingpart of the week in her personal mission to find other women who were suffering silently with Fistula.
Her every morning motivation to open the salon was for the venue to serve as a platform for raising awareness as well as to make money that would enable her to connect as many women as possible with treatment opportunities.

LEFI’s Formal Birth (Forging Strategic Alliances – 2011)

In 2011, after four years of conducting her outreach, Sarah entered into what would become a long-term partnership with One By One (then a US-based non-profit organization).

Through this partnership, Let’s End Fistula Initiative (LEFI) was formerly launched as an implementing program.
This became a groundbreaking initiative designed to address the four pillars of a comprehensive approach to Fistula Care:
The pillars are:

1. Education and Outreach

2. Surgical Treatment

3. Social Reintegration & Economic Empowerment

4. Prevention

Following Sarah’s successful grassroots Initiatives, the desire to reproduce herself through other Fistula Survivors became a reality with the entry of One by One.
A Three-woman leadership team (Ms. Sarah Omega, Ms. Norah Otondo and Ms. Habiba Mohammed), led by Sarah, recruited, trained, and mentored 30 Regional Representatives – 25 of them being fistula survivors – from 12 western Kenya Counties to serve as Frontline Community Educators & Advocates for Fistula care.
In 2018, One by One (OBO) merged with Worldwide Fistula Fund (WFF), an organization that has continued to fund LEFI’s Programs to date.

Establishment of the First Fistula Treatment Centre (Surgical Care – 2011-2015)

LEFI then under One By One partnered with Dr. Hilary Mabeya to establish the First Fistula Centre in Eldoret, then the only facility in Kenya that was dedicated to purely care for fistula patients. Between 2011-2015 LEFI supported over 1,000 women and girls to receive life-transforming Fistula Surgical Care.

LEFI’s Registration as a Non-Governmental Organization (LEFI accorded NGO Status – 2019)

LEFI served as an implementing program for 8 years, before its formal registration as a Non-Governmental Organization under Section 10 of the NGO Coordination ACT (That is currently Referred to as Public Benefits Organizations Regulatory Authority – PBORA created under PBO Act of 2013)

Born from her Wounds, Built for her Sisters (LEFI’s Woven Fabric)

Sarah Omega’s journey is a profound testament to resilience, purpose and transformation that continues to echo into LEFI’s programming work. Her story is not just about healing a wound. It is about reclaiming Identity, Restoring Dignity and Creating Systems of Hope for thousands of women.Through LEFI what began as one woman’s Recovery has become a movement for Justice, healing and empowerment for women and girls not only in Kenya but also for women across the globe.