Save Afghan Women & Children with Health Care

AIL runs a comprehensive Health Program that encompasses health treatment, health education and health training. Workshops that relate to pregnancy and childbirth are highly regarded and quickly fill up once posted. Women know that the country has an alarmingly high rate of maternal death and injury and infant mortality. Women want to do the right thing to be safe, once they know what that is. AIL has given two Reproductive Health Workshops for 80 women in the last 2 months with the total for the year now at 285 women trained.

AIL’s 3 hour Expectant Mother Workshop (EM) is another quick and easy way for these women to learn what they need to know. The topics covered include: antenatal and postnatal care, safe childbirth and infant care, child spacing and breast feeding as well as the importance of keeping in touch with clinics or Community Health Workers. The workshops are held in more remote areas where women have few medical options. The women are under  AIL clinic observation and report back with their newborn for 3 months following birth.

One participant said, "This is the first time that we attended such a workshop and this is the first organization that gives workshops like this for the pregnant women in our area. This shows AIL really cares and reaches out to all people. At the end of the workshop we received a nice new baby kit that contained a hat, pinafore, swaddling, band swaddling, shirt, sun suit, pads and diapers, panties and soap.” So far in 2014, AIL has given 13 EM Workshops for 340 women (170  pregnant) and remarkably all of the births recorded so far were at clinics rather than a risky home birth situation. In addition to its focused workshops, AIL has provided thousands of women with reproductive health education through the AIL clinics and Community Health Workers posts.

Thank you for your interest in Afghan women’s health issues. We have included Creating Hope International’s 2014 newsletter which contains information on AIL’s work. We hope that you will take a moment to read through it.

• Newsletter2014_FINAL_v2.pdf (PDF)
  

The Safer World Fund has selected our project to support through a 50% match on all donations made while funds last! Your donation of $10 becomes $15, or $50 becomes $75.

Since you have supported our project in the past, you know that the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) programs seeks to help Afghans reach their full potential. Recently, Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder and CEO of AIL, said that she believes that in order for people to reach their full potential they need to be educated, healthy, safe and have a stable economy. When people do not feel safe, they cannot leave their houses. This means they cannot get an education or work, and when this happens, the whole economy suffers. Also, when a person is malnourished, they cannot learn or work. 

AIL is helping to address all four of these issues through it’s programs. AIL offers Afghans a safe place to come and learn by working closely with the communities where its programs exist. These programs offer education, including health education and resources on how to live a healthy life, which lead to people having the skills they need to be employed. People who are employed contribute to the economy and the security of a community. AIL’s holistic programs address all of the needs of those that they work with in a culturally sensitive manner, and in the end the communities are better educated, healthier, more economically stable and ultimately safer.

We thank you for your past contributions to our efforts to provide healthcare to Afghan women. As the situation continues to change in Afghanistan, your support has become even more important. We hope that you will rise to the challenge and help us take advantage of this matching opportunity!