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International and Afghan NGOs in Herat, Nangahar, Balkh, and Kabul Provinces receive the first of $3.5 million in grants to reduce maternal mortality in Afghanistan through midwifery training Kabul, April 17, 2004 - Grants to support midwifery training programs in Afghanistan have been awarded by the Afghan Ministry of Health (MOH) and USAID at a ceremony held April 17, 2004, at the Institute of Health Sciences in Kabul. The award recipients were NGOs in four of the country's largest provinces who will collaborate with Provincial Health Directors and faculty on local campuses of Afghanistan's Institute of Health Sciences to improve the performance of teachers and students in midwifery training courses and to strengthen clinical care at teaching facilities throughout the province, including hospital(s), Community Health Centers, and Basic Health Centers. US Ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad; Minister of Health, Sohaila Seddiq; and Karen Welch, USAID Health Officer, signed letters of agreement with the directors of the four grantees: World Vision International, Hirat; International Medical Corps, Jalalabad; IbnSina, Mazar-i-Sharif; and the Aga Khan Foundation, Kabul. Though midwives, working alone or with doctors, have traditionally played a vital role in the delivery of maternal and newborn health services in Afghanistan, Afghan women's inability to receive midwifery training over the past seven years has left only 467 practicing midwives in the country. The newly awarded grants are but the first of an eventual $3.5 million in grants earmarked for the expansion of midwifery training in Afghanistan, part of an aggressive effort on the part of the Afghan MOH and USAID/REACH Midwifery Education Program to lower Afghanistan's maternal and child mortality rate, which ranks among the highest in the world. Said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Safe Motherhood Advisor, USAID/REACH, one of several speakers at the well-attended ceremony, "Midwives are called upon to be frontline health professionals with the skills to save lives," adding that "the MOH has demonstrated remarkable commitment in its focus on midwifery education." |
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