Mohammad at HI's Kandahar rehabilitation center with Suliman, a young amputee who was injured by an explosive device in his garden. | © HI
Mohammad at HI's Kandahar rehabilitation center with Suliman, a young amputee who was injured by an explosive device in his garden. | © HI
People are still struggling with poverty,displacement, drought, the risk from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and threat from ISIS. Additionally the country is facing a failing health system and the economy is also on the edge of collapse. So people are highly distressed as they don't know what will happen next in this highly unpredictable situation.
Daily, thousands of people are aiming to leave the country due to protection issues or to seek a better life out of the country. Everywhere in Afghanistan, there is food insecurity and there's a huge need for humanitarian assistance.
Even though the conflict is now over, I mean the big conflict between the previous government and the IEA, the battlefields and he districts are still highly contaminated with explosive remnants of war and IEDs. So, of course, the need for physical rehabilitation and risk education and also for psychosocial support remains high.
We have several approaches to reach vulnerable people in need of services, especially rehabilitation, psychosocial support or skill development (which is for income generating activities).
For instance, we provide support in the rehabilitation center where vulnerable people are referred to us by other stakeholders including humanitarian partners. And we also have mobile teams. We go to the communities where we deliver the services directly to people. We also refer them for follow up services to other partners and also to the rehabilitation center if they need further support.
In Kandahar, approximately one fourth of the people we are seeing in our rehabilitation center are survivors of the conflict. Either they have acquired their injury in the recent conflict in the recent months, or they are the victims of the conflict in the previous years, but they didn't have the opportunity to access the center. We also see people who have injuries from road accidents as well as people who acquired a disability during birth.
I will share one of the story out of a thousand because in our center we are seeing 9,000 patients every year.
One of the people who was referred to us in the recent months was Anisa, an 8-year old girl from Zabul Province. A mortar bomb hit her house while she was playing at home with her cousins. She was badly injured and she was taken to several hospitals to treat her.
Unfortunately, her left leg had to be amputated and then she was referred to the rehabilitation center in Kandahar, which is managed by HI. Our team at the rehabilitation center worked with her for several weeks to help her recover. She was happy that she could play again with her cousins or go to school.
Anisa is being supported by one of HI's physical therapists at the rehabilitation center in Kandahar. © HI
Certainly, there have been some changes as the new government is not well established yet and the public service remain interrupted. So there are a lot of uncertainties and the new government is trying to introduce new guidelines procedures. Female staff who are working for the public sector, apart from the health sector, are still not able to attend work. We had some challenges related to access for our female staff to our community based activities, we had a lot of interaction and intensive engagement with new authorities. Finally, we succeeded and access for our female staff was granted.
I like visiting my team while they are delivering services to the people we support. I take the opportunity to directly hear from my team and their patients, listening to their feedback, suggestions and challenges that they face in the day to day activities.
Of course, I have a message: The people of Afghanistan really need the support from the international community now more than ever. So please, please don't forget Afghanistan in this difficult time.
