BAHARIN LEHIB

Panjshir- “Afghanistan is among the worst countries in the world for deaths in childbirth. Every two minutes, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth,” the World Health Organization said in a report in 2023. Every day, 167 children die in Afghanistan from preventable diseases, according to the UN children's fund UNICEF.

Before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the health sector in the country was ignored and turned into a means of profit by the governments. Since 2021, Afghans have experienced serious difficulties in accessing healthcare services. The people living in rural areas of Afghanistan are not able to access healthcare services because there are severe shortages of healthcare facilities, workers, equipment, and medications.

Panjshir is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. There are many hospital buildings in the province but without doctors, equipment and medications. EMERGENCY Centre, in the mountainous Panjshir region, was the first EMERGENCY facility established in Afghanistan in 1999. At first, a former barracks was turned into a surgical center for war victims and over time, it began to provide health services to women and children. In the region, patients are transferred to this center due to the lack of good facilities and good qualified healthcare services; however, doctors and healthcare workers cannot help all the patients.

‘The governments were responsible for the deaths of mothers and their babies’

NuJINHA spoke to Tahera Wisom, who had lost her daughter-in-law and her grandchild while trying to take them to the Emergency Center from a distant village.

“My daughter-in-law was in her second pregnancy and she was in severe labor pain. The local midwife could not help her so we decided to take her to the center; however, she and her unborn baby died on the way to the center,” said Tahera Wison with tears in her eyes. “My daughter-in-law was very young and now my grandchild has no mother. It is painful for all of us. The governments of Karzai and Ghani filled their pockets instead of providing healthcare services to us. They were responsible for the deaths of mothers and their babies. The Taliban were able to take over Afghanistan in a few days because of them. If people do not raise their voices, our children’s lives will not be better. They die before being born.”