fred de sam lazaro reports from kenya.s part of his agents for change series. >> reporter: in a new hospital in eldoret, kenya, these women are awaiting surgery to fix a condition that's widely misunderstood and reviled. one that's made them outcasts, often in their own families. it's called obstetric fistula, an injury to the birth canal caused, in most cases, by prolonged labor that leaves a woman incontinent. perhaps one million women in the developing world suffer from fistulas, a condition virtually wiped out in industrialized nations with better access to prenatal care and medical facilities. at least once a week, these patients hear a message of hope from a woman who knows all too well their suffering. 41-year-old sarah omega was just 19 when she was raped and became pregnant. >> i was so scared. i didn't want to secure an abortion because of my faith, so i kept the pregnancy. >> reporter: omega eventually spent 38 hours in a difficult labor, much of it at home. in the process, the baby died, and she suffered a larg

for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in nairobi, kenya. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. >> woodruff: next, a story from baltimore. city leaders built a broad coalition to help solve a problem for students there: access to vision care. william brangham reports for our weekly series making the grade. >> cover your left eye for me. can you see that line under the red line? >> brangham: vision checks at the start of the school year are routine for many students around the country. it's the same here at matthew a. henson elementary in baltimore. reading those little letters from a distance is no problem for some. >> d, c, z, o, d, t, p. >> brangham: but for others... >> read that line again for me? is that all you can see? >> brangham: for kids with poor vision, their parents now have to start a long and expensive process: eye doctors, opticians, buying glasses. >> we live in a community where unfortunately so many of our children live below the poverty line where there are many ba

special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports on how some medical providers in kenya are trying to ensure patients receive genuine prescription drugs. its part of his series, agents for change. >> reporter: catherine karimi has been a nurse for 30 years. but for the last nine, she's also been a businesswoman. she owns a franchise in nairobi of a c.f.w. clinic, owned by a u.s.-based group called the health store foundation. so business is good? >> yeah, i can't complain. >> reporter: much like a fast- food chain, health store supplies karimi and all franchisees with lab equipment, training, marketing and standardized procedures. perhaps most importantly, it also supplies clinics with genuine drugs, continuing what's on the original label. >> they feel that our drugs are original. that's why they come here. >> reporter: 23-year-old edah mokua came here after the drugs she bought at a nearby pharmacy failed to cure a urinary tract infection. >> they did not work at all. >> reporter: so-called "fake pharmaceuticals" are a multi- billion dollar problem around the world. they are made an