Afghan Healthcare Workers, Including Thousands of Women, Brave Daily Obstacles to Deliver Essential Medical Services
Healthcare Workers in Afghanistan
After enduring a long time of instability, droughts, and herbal calamities, Afghanistan unearths itself trapped in an ongoing and intense humanitarian catastrophe.
Healthcare Education
Each day, tens of thousands and thousands grapple with the cruel reality of residing without getting admission to healthcare and nutrition, exposing them to the risks of malnutrition and capacity sickness outbreaks.
This burden is mainly weighty for girls and girls, who face stressful conditions due to the erosion of their rights, which restricts their ability to access healthcare, education, and the freedom to move as they wish.
Afghan Citizens
Nevertheless, even in the face of this enduring crisis, Afghan healthcare workers – including thousands of dedicated women – persistently confront daily obstacles to deliver essential medical services.
Health Workers
Thanks to the backing of humanitarian organizations and generous donors, these healthcare heroes, comprising doctors, nurses, midwives, community health workers, vaccinators, and many others, continue to bring life-saving care to millions of Afghan citizens.
Health Lead
Dr. Fouzia Shafique, UNICEF’s health lead in Afghanistan, expressed admiration for the remarkable dedication and unspoken heroism of the country’s healthcare workers. She stated, “Due to their unwavering efforts, nearly 20 million Afghans have accessed health and nutrition services in the first six months of this year, which accounts for nearly half of Afghanistan’s entire population.
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Healthcare Facilities
In practical terms, UNICEF and its collaborative partners assist Afghanistan’s healthcare professionals by funding the operational expenses of over 2,400 healthcare facilities. They also offer support for essential medical supplies and cover the salaries of approximately 27,000 healthcare experts, with nearly 10,000 of them being women.
World Health Organization
Nevertheless, the healthcare requirements in Afghanistan are continually on the ascent. The current caution issued via way of means of the World Health Organization highlights the urgent want to boom investments in healthcare carrier shipping inside Afghanistan which will guard the many years of investments made via way of means of the worldwide community.
Healthcare System
Over the past couple of years, contributions from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, the Global Financing Facility, as well as support from institutions like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and various other donors, have empowered UNICEF, WHO, and ICRC to maintain the functionality of the healthcare system.
Healthcare Gadget
While humanitarian organizations are pivotal, they cannot serve as a replacement for a robust public health system. To stabilise the well-being of tens of thousands and thousands of Afghan youngsters as they grow, Afghanistan is in dire want of a healthcare gadget that could properly cope with their requirements.
Gandhi Children’s Hospital
In the neonatal intensive care unit at Kabul’s Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital, newborns often share incubators. In Afghanistan, the statistics are grim, with four out of every 100 newborns succumbing within their first month, constituting nearly half of all under-five mortality cases.
Malnutrition is a pressing concern for many expectant mothers and their infants, further amplifying the risks of maternal and neonatal mortality. Afghanistan has, for a considerable time, grappled with some of the world’s highest rates of maternal and neonatal mortality.
Provincial Hospital
At Wardak Provincial Hospital in central Afghanistan, ten-month-old Adila is currently undergoing treatment for acute watery diarrhea, a potentially life-threatening condition when left untreated.
The nation is facing a daunting challenge as it contends with several disease outbreaks, exacerbated by soaring temperatures and water shortages.
Western Afghanistan
Twelve-month-old Rehana has been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, accompanied by complications, and has been admitted to the Badghis Provincial Hospital in western Afghanistan for treatment. Alarmingly, nearly 85 percent of Afghan children are not receiving the required diversity and quantity of food, rendering them less resistant to illnesses and increasing their vulnerability to health issues.
Health Center
At a health center in Balkh province, situated in northern Afghanistan, a midwife tends to a patient. Enhanced security conditions have encouraged a growing number of women to seek healthcare services. In the past, women who opted for home births are now choosing health centers as their preferred delivery location.
Pharmacy
pharmacy of Wardak Provincial Hospital in central Afghanistan, a pharmacist dispenses medication. The widespread availability of medicines continues to be a persistent challenge in public healthcare facilities throughout the country.
Abdul Latif
Each day, Abdul Latif embarks on a lengthy journey, traversing miles to deliver vaccines to children living in remote villages in Nuristan, located in eastern Afghanistan.
He navigates rivers and scales steep hills, facing the challenges of sweltering heat and genuine security concerns. Latif is just one of the countless dedicated vaccinators working tirelessly to ensure that no child is left without the vital, life-saving vaccines they need
Dr. Fatima Adeli
Dr. Fatima Adeli, a member of the UNICEF-backed mobile health and nutrition team (MHNT), tends to patients in the Nili district of Daikundi province in central Afghanistan.
These MHNTs serve as a crucial lifeline to communities in remote and challenging-to-access regions across the country.
Health Worker
Rahima Karimi, a dedicated community health worker based in Herat province in western Afghanistan, conducts regular monthly visits to Ghuncha Gul, a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy.
Rahima’s number one position entails instructing expectant moms inside her network about the vital significance of creating not less than 4 prenatal health centre visits and advocating for handing over their toddlers at healthcare centres.
Her motivation stems from witnessing the hardships she persevered through several girls all through pregnancy, which stimulated her to turn out to be a network medical expert and provide her assistance.
Mobile Health and Nutrition Team (MHNT)
Zarmina is provided with Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic Food (RUTF) at a Mobile Health and Nutrition Team (MHNT) facility in Kunar province, located in eastern Afghanistan.
RUTF is a high-energy, nutrient-wealthy paste constituted of components like peanuts, sugar, milk powder, oil, vitamins, and minerals. It performs an essential position in treating kids laid low with extreme acute malnutrition.
In the 12 months of 2023 alone, RUTF turned instrumental in assisting over 400,000 kids in Afghanistan who had been bothered with extreme acute malnutrition.