Medical staff at Khaki Basic Health Unit. Photo: Mohammad Arshad/CWS P/A Afghan women and children in the courtyard of the CWS Mother and Child Health Center in Debgran, Pakistan. The center serves both Afghan refugees and local Pakistanis. Photo: Janet Young/CWS

Health: A Durable Solution In Afghanistan

Story by Jennifer Hendrick/CWS and Janet Young/CWS

Afghans, especially women, suffer one of the world's worst health records. However, fewer Afghan women are dying in childbirth in communities served by the Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan Community Health Project, and their newborns are much more likely to survive.

More than a quarter of a million Afghans benefit from the project, including refugees in western Pakistan and internally displaced persons and returnees in eastern Afghanistan. Following Pakistan's devastating earthquake in 2005, the health project expanded to serve displaced and resident Pakistanis, especially women and children.

Results are most dramatic inside Afghanistan, where 1,900 women die in childbirth for every 100,000 live births, and 165 of every 1,000 newborns die. Those numbers drop to 860 and 28, respectively, in communities served by the CWS project.

Similarly, the Afghan refugee community in Pakistan suffers a maternal mortality rate of 500 per 100,000 live births and an infant mortality rate of 80 per 1,000 live births. Those numbers drop to 39 and 19, respectively, where CWS is at work.

Among the keys to success are the employment of female doctors in Basic Health Units and women's clinics and a corps of Female Volunteer Community Health Workers, who are trained in disease prevention and treatment, nutrition, HIV/AIDS awareness, and reproductive health, including safe childbirth at home.

At a recent training in Khaki, Pakistan, one Female Volunteer Community Health Worker recounted how many Afghan refugee women died during childbirth because there were complications and no one knew what to do.

"They could not even go to the hospital, because the transportation alone cost 10,000 Pakistani rupees (the equivalent of $164 US), and no one could afford that," she said. Similarly, no one could afford the cost of actually paying a doctor. Furthermore, strict cultural norms prohibit Afghan women from being seen by a male doctor -- and female medical practitioners are in short supply.

"Now," the health worker said, "women like us are learning to help with childbirth, and we can stop some of these things from happening, or we know what to do if they happen." She beamed with pride in the ability to improve women's health and make a difference in her community.

Over its 27-year history, the CWS Community Health Project has helped foster significant shifts in Afghan communities' views of health and its importance. Perhaps most astonishing is the way men have come to understand the need for adequate health care for women and children, and the fact that they now support women in the role of providing for the health of other women and children.

Women cannot become Volunteer Community Health Workers without the support of their husbands, noted Dr. Shumaila Rasheed, CWS Medical Program Coordinator in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. "This is especially important because often they will be called upon late at night and must travel distances to assist with deliveries."

Dr. Rasheed concluded, "These women provide invaluable services to their communities. They take their work very seriously. It means a lot to them to be part of this. We are very proud of them!"

You and your congregation's support for CWS Durable Solutions for Displaced Persons can help uprooted people around the world.