Health Partners International of Canada is working with CURE International Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan to provide essential healthcare services to a population battered by conflict, poverty and social upheaval. HPIC is enabling CURE to treat its clientele by helping to fill the pharmaceutical requirements of the hospital through regular shipments of medicines and medical supplies.
CURE International Hospital, Kabul
The CURE International Hospital of Kabul was established in 2004 when the Afghan Ministry of Public Health asked CURE International to take over a hospital in Kabul.
The hospital’s facilities include a women’s clinic and general medical and surgical services, delivering top quality health care to some 8,000 patients each month. The outpatient clinic serves up to 10,000 patients monthly. The 115-bed hospital provides obstetrics and gynecological care, orthopedic surgery for children and adults seriously injured by war and landmines, and general surgery. It has a feeding unit for children suffering from malnutrition, a diagnostic laboratory, and offers specialized burn care.
One of the most important services offered by CURE Kabul is maternal and infant health care. The services included: obstetrics and gynecology, neonatal intensive care, and an advanced obstetrics-gynecology training program for physicians and nurse midwives. CURE Kabul currently “delivers” about 100 babies each month and provides care to an additional 150 pregnant women. In November 2005, the hospital opened a neonatal intensive care unit to expand the services offered to women with high risk pregnancies. This is Afghanistan’s only neonatal intensive care unit.
CURE Kabul also runs a family practice residency for Afghan medical students from around the country. The hospital offers training programs in orthopedic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, lab technology and general practice that are being used by the Ministry of Public Health throughout Afghanistan.
Afghanistan
Through decades of turmoil, Afghanistan’s rich history and cultural and scientific accomplishments have been seriously undermined, leaving a society bereft of even basic security and services.
The infrastructure of the entire country has been decimated. Currently, less than 10 per cent of all Afghans have access to a consistent source of electricity and only about 20 per cent have access to safe water.
Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily land mined countries in the world. Land that once provided a viable income through agriculture is now unusable. The inability to produce food contributes to the fact that more than half of all Afghanistan’s children suffer from malnutrition. And landmine related deaths and disabilities continue the devastation of a war that has supposedly ended.
The health statistics of Afghan citizens, especially women and children, are staggering and paint a disturbing picture:
- one out of every four children dies before the age of five
- the country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world
- less than 14 per cent of births are attended by a healthcare professional
- 70 per cent of new cases of TB are women
- 85-90 per cent of Afghan women and girls are illiterate
- Afghanistan is rated the lowest country in the world on the treatment of women by the GDI (gender development index).
- the life expectancy of the average Afghan is 44 years of which only 33 years are expected to be lived in adequate health
HPIC and CURE Kabul
The objective of HPIC’s partnership with the CURE International Hospital is high quality care of patients in the Kabul area, who otherwise might have no access to treatment due to poverty and the lack of alternate healthcare services. This is achieved through HPIC’s provision of medicines and supplies, based on locally assessed needs, and the range of essential services provided to patients by HPIC’s field partner, CURE International.
Shipments of medical aid are generally provided on a yearly basis, and cover a significant portion of the hospital’s needs in medicine and supplies.
CURE Kabul is able to report on the number of patients receiving medicines, specific treatments and surgeries made possible that would not otherwise have been available or were greatly enhanced by the medicine and supplies provided.
HPIC is grateful for the public endorsement of this program by the Afghanistan ambassador and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as the generous support of Canadian healthcare companies and financial supporters.
Together we are making a difference in the lives of the people of Kabul.
