Why Do We Work in Afghanistan?

Afghanistan has been deemed one of “the worst places in the world to give birth.” Delivering a baby here can be a life or death event – every thirty minutes another Afghan woman dies during childbirth, one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. For every woman who dies, twenty more survive with significant injuries such as obstetric fistula. The threat to women’s health, and maternal health in particular, is made worse by the social and historical realities facing the country. Decades of war and instability have devastated Afghanistan’s health care infrastructure. Women were banned from receiving treatment from male doctors under Taliban rule, and with few female doctors in the country, many illnesses were left untreated and births were largely done in the home with no skilled attendants present. Further compounding the problem are practices such as early marriage and lack of female education/literacy. Conditions for women have started to improve over the last decade, but there remains a very acute need for targeted support in training medical personnel (especially females) and treating women who suffer from this debilitating injury.

What You Help Us Do in Afghanistan

We’re helping fund:

• Fistula surgeries
• Surgeon training
• Community outreach
• Capacity building

Where:

CURE International Hospital, Kabul

How much funding have we granted?

$195,162 in FY2015
$375,851 in FY2014
$144,549 in FY2013
$38,068 in FY2012
$110,480 in FY2011
$64,975 in FY2010
$135,274 in FY2009

Who is our partner?

We provide grant support directly to this hospital.

How will this help women in Afghanistan?

One of the bottlenecks in Afghanistan is a severe shortage of female doctors. Fistula Foundation funds an 18-month competency-based fellowship training program for female surgeons in obstetrics and gynecology at CURE Hospital. As this program continues, more women doctors receive high-quality training and, in turn, more women with fistula are able to access treatment. Our support has also enabled the hospital to hire more full-time gynecologists on staff following their completion of the fellowship program, further increasing the number of women who can be treated.

Funding from Fistula Foundation will also support free surgeries for 75 women this year, a variety of outreach materials such as educational brochures and TV/radio announcements, and the purchase of updated equipment for the operating room to ensure patients are receiving the highest quality care possible.

In 2012, we funded the construction of a new roof on the operating theater after it sustained significant damage during a particularly harsh winter the year before.