Kabul, April 13, 2005 - For years Afghanistan has suffered from one of the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the world. But now a new generation of midwives, the first ever to undergo a full two-year professional training, is about to enter the Afghan work force.

On April 13, the first 138 Afghan women to complete this training were honored at a graduation ceremony at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel. Dr. Mohd.Amin Fatemi, Afghanistan's Minister of Public Health, was the featured speaker.

The new graduates come from 20 provinces. Trained in a rigorous curriculum adopted by the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (formerly Afghan Ministry of Health) and implemented by Afghanistan's Institute of Health Sciences, the students did clinical work at Kabul's Rabia Balkhi, Malalai, and Khair Khona hospitals.

By the end of this month, another 90 midwives will graduate from similar courses at IHS campuses in Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat.

The graduation of these 228 students represents a 65% increase in the number of skilled birth attendants in Afghanistan. They are the first of the 830 new Afghan midwives expected to be trained by 2006 under a USAID grant of $6.7 million and additional funds from the Agha Khan Development Network.

Under the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were denied the most basic human freedoms. For seven years, a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world trained no new midwives. When the Taliban fell, only 467 trained midwives remained in the country, and for every 100,000 live births, an estimated 1700 women died.

Roughly 40% of Afghanistan's health facilities still lack skilled women to deal with obstetric emergencies. The vast majority of Afghan women give birth at home, only 8% with help from a trained birth attendant.

Following the Kabul graduation ceremony, NGO representatives were on hand to talk with the new graduates about employment with maternal and newborn health programs in Afghanistan, in clinics, health centers, and hospitals throughout the country, especially in rural areas.

In conjunction with the Afghan Ministry of Health, USAID has been working through the Rural Expansion of Afghanistan's Community-based Health Care (REACH) Program to reduce the country's maternal and child mortality rate. Over the past two years, REACH, implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), and whose Safe Motherhood Unit is staffed by JHPIEGO, has awarded NGO recipients some $67 million in USAID grants to increase this most vulnerable population's access to quality health services.

The new midwives will not only practice their obstetric skills but use them to train other Afghan midwives and female health providers who work directly inside the home.

<<< Back to News Room