Life in Afghanistan

After the Soviet invasion, Afghanistan fell under the rule of the Taliban, which enforced strict controls on mobility, education, and employment. For five years, Afghans lived under the thumb of the Taliban, particularly women, who were forbidden even from a basic education. The Taliban’s fall marked the beginning of Afghanistan’s slow recovery. Both urban and even-more-vulnerable rural populations continue to struggle in poverty, while food security continues to decrease with rising food and fuel costs and after flooding and drought in early 2008. While girls’ schools have re-opened and health care has expanded, Afghanistan still has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world at just 44 years old. Its infant mortality rate is also staggeringly high at 1,600 deaths for every 100,000 births.

Helping Communities Help Themselves

Bringing Relief

As Afghanistan enters a period of transition, International Medical Corps is evolving to meet emerging needs while continuing to critical  basic services.  Our work in Afghanistan is centered on three key pillars – health, capacity building, and comprehensive community development – so that it can serve the overall well-being of communities as it helps them to rebuild and strengthen their infrastructure.  Nearly one million people are touched by our programs in Afghanistan which include:
•    Primary health care
•    Secondary health care, including surgery
•    Maternal and child care
•    Expanded immunization
•    Nutritional screening and therapeutic feeding
•    Infrastructure rebuilding and development
•    Livelihoods and community support
•    Refugee return and IDP assistance
•    Water and sanitation

Health        

Although there have been great strides made to improve the health status of Afghans in the past five years, maternal and neonatal mortality are still among the highest in the world and malnutrition is rising at an alarming rate.  International Medical Corps provides health services in even the most remote and rural areas in Afghanistan.  Because of our success in improving community-based health care, the Ministry of Public Health has request we continue and expand these services. 

Afghan refugees continue to return from Pakistan, meeting thousands of other returnees who live in camps with little access to food, shelter, or health care.  To help returnees, International Medical Corps provides a holistic package of services, including direct medical support through a network of medical clinics, as well as clean water and sanitation services to returnees by building wells and latrines and providing hygiene education. In addition to returnee support, we engages local communities to rehabilitate roads and other infrastructure elements.

Enabling Self-Reliance

To make its relief efforts sustainable, International Medical Corps’ programs train Afghans to fulfill the following roles in their programs:
•    Traditional birth attendants – Help ensure  referrals for clean, safe deliveries for Afghan mothers and their babies
•    Health care workers - Provide primary health care through International Medical Corps-supported health posts, mobile clinics, and health centers
•    Community health workers – Educate peers in basic health, such as preventable diseases, including nutrition and safe motherhood

Capacity Building   

With the support of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, International Medical Corps provides an obstetric and gynecology residency training program for physicians and a formal training program for midwives at the Rabia Balkhi Hospital for Women. Formal trainings also target other health professionals including radiologists, pharmacists, anesthetists, pediatricians, and nurses. International Medical Corps worked with the Ministry of Public Health to develop the first in-service residency program and the materials for the first national in-service nursing curricula in the country.

In order to decrease the maternal and neonatal mortality rate in Afghanistan, International Medical Corps understands the need for a skilled birth attendant during delivery. Because the majority of deliveries take place in the community and not in hospital settings, International Medical Corps provides training to community midwives. With the support of JHPIEGO/HSSP, International Medical Corps has graduated and placed nearly 90 midwives and continues to train another 30.  This program recently received the highest position amongst the community midwifery programs in the country, while its first program in 2006 was named best in the country.

Community Development   

International Medical Corps’ overarching objective in Afghanistan is to create more sustainable and resilient communities.  With 25 years experience in disaster relief and development, International Medical Corps works alongside Afghanistan’s communities in each and every program implemented. 

Good health cannot be sustained without successful livelihoods. In addition to health care training, International Medical Corps also creates livelihoods projects for returnees, such as poultry farming, dried fruit production, and home gardening.  These livelihoods programs work to not only increase self-sufficiency, but also help address the high malnutrition rates, particularly in light of rising global prices.

International Medical Corps also mobilizes communities to rehabilitate community infrastructure elements. International Medical Corps’ development initiatives have helped as many as 50,000 people with more than 300 infrastructure and 150 irrigation projects.  Local involvement is critical in its infrastructure projects, as we work with communities to make sure they have clean water, sanitation, education, vocational training, agriculture, health care, and livelihoods.  

You Can Help Build Change That Lasts

Despite its progress, Afghans are still threatened by tenuous security and harsh environmental conditions. These risks, coupled with the rising cost of food and fuel, deepen the need for international support. With your generosity, more Afghans will be able have the medicines, health care facilities, and qualified medical personnel needed to protect their future. Help Afghanistan and other International Medical Corps programs worldwide.

*Statistics from U.S. Government
**Statistic from UNHCR