Why Do We Work in Afghanistan?

If you are a woman delivering a baby in Afghanistan, you know that it could be a life or death event. Every thirty minutes, another Afghan woman dies during childbirth — one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. For every woman who dies, twenty survive with significant injuries such as obstetric fistula. Because there is such a dramatic need, the Fistula Foundation is choosing to target its support for Afghanistan.

What You Help Us Do in Afghanistan

We're helping fund:

• Fistula surgery training
• Community outreach (patient recruitment)
• Build healthcare capacity

Where:
CURE International Hospital located in the capital city of Kabul

How much funding have we granted?
$110,480 in FY2011
$64,975 in FY2010
$135,274 in FY2009

Who's our partner?
We provide grant support directly to this hospital.

How will this help women in Afghanistan?
One of the bottlenecks in Afghanistan is a severe shortage of female doctors. And strict segregation laws prohibit female patients from being treated by male health workers. The Fistula Foundation is funding the Hospital's full-time, eighteen month competency-based fellowship training program for female surgeons in obstetrics and gynecology. Every year the program continues, more women doctors receive high-quality training and more women enduring fistula will be freed from intense and pointless suffering. We are also funding community outreach to inform the local community that high-quality, free fistula surgery treatment is available.