This weeks letter home : Médecins Sans Frontières Australia

FROM NORTHERN afghanistan Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson is a nurse and midwife from Cairns, Australia. She has been the Field Coordinator for the Médecins Sans Frontières' Northern Afghanistan project in Faryab Province since June 2003. This is her second mission with Médecins Sans Frontières. Chris was previously a Médecins Sans Frontières volunteer in Armenia.

It is just on 0630, the sun has shown its face but there is little warmth at this time of the year. Winter is fast approaching northern Afghanistan, soon the days will become dramatically shorter, severely restricting our movements to the far-reaching villages of Faryab province. This region of Afghanistan is a remote area, poor and at risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases and malnutrition, with few international organisations for a province of almost one million inhabitants. Médecins Sans Frontieres is the only medical organisation providing much needed aid in this area.

With my afghan colleagues, I am travelling the 80 km journey from our base in Maimana to the distant village of Shakh in the southern district of Qaysar. The road conditions are appalling; it will take us three and half hours to drive there. Today we will meet with community elders to finalise the arrangements required for Médecins Sans Frontieres to open a health clinic. The elders have been overwhelmed with the thought of an organisation taking interest in their isolated community. Up till June this year, we operated an emergency nutrition program in this remote community. After three years of severe drought, malnutrition was extreme, necessitating the intervention. With seasonal rain and improved food availability, the situation dramatically improved allowing the nutrition programs to be safely withdrawn. Shakh has a population of approximately 48 000. The existing health post has one doctor. With Médecins Sans Frontieres support, a health team will be established to include vaccinators and traditional birthing attendants. In the coming year, services will be expanded to include health educators and mother/child health workers. Consultations and treatment will be provided free of charge.

The activities of Médecins Sans Frontieres in Faryab target the vulnerable population, particularly women and children. The life expectancy of women at birth is 44 years and the country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. One out of every nine women aged between 15 and 45 years will die during pregnancy or delivery. One in four children will die before the age of five. The deaths among children result mostly from inadequate feeding practices, diarrhoeal diseases and preventable childhood infections. It is estimated that only 29% of Afghans have access to basic health care and 6-13% have access to safe water. It is almost incomprehensible until you see the conditions people are living in with your own eyes. Access to education is also limited. Literacy levels are lowest among the female population with approximately 15% literate.

Médecins Sans Frontieres commenced its activities in Faryab province in 1997 and currently supports six clinics, soon to be increased to seven with the opening of Shakh. The project focuses on delivering primary health care services but also responds to medical emergencies such as outbreaks of measles, cholera, diphtheria and meningitis. During the six-year period of Médecins Sans Frontières’ presence in Faryab, the international staff have been evacuated on numerous occasions due to the extremely volatile security situation. During these absences, the national staff have continued the project activities, for several months at a time. The national staff have a wealth of experience and the project could not continue without them. Just in the last few weeks, security has again become unstable and renewed warfare between political factions has forced us to suspend our activities in the south of the province. It is hoped a peaceful resolution will be reached soon, allowing us to resume our work in these vulnerable areas.

Soon I will return to sunny Cairns (Australia) and life in Afghanistan will be a thing of the past, but fond memories will remain.

November 2003

MSF leaves following killings + threats
The people of Afghanistan today face a harsh and desperate reality as a result of more than 25 years of war, shifting political leadership and years of drought. To help alleviate their suffering, MSF has been providing Afghans with medical care for almost 24 years.

Tragically, on June 2, 2004, five MSF staff members were shot and killed on the road between Khairkhana and Qala-i-Naw in northwestern Badghis province. After weighing the options, MSF sadly decided to close all of its medical projects in Afghanistan by the end of August 2004. Most activities were handed over to local groups, international NGOs or the ministry of health.

Before the killings took place in June, MSF was helping displaced people living in various camps inside Afghanistan as well as assisting Afghan refugees living in neighboring Pakistan and Iran... » More

COUNTRY PROFILE Afghanistan
Population: 23,294,000
Life expectancy: 43 years
Expatriate staff: 67 | National staff: 658
(before 2 June 2004)
MSF worked in Afghanistan from 1980 until August 2004.

Afghanistan map

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