Medical and health assistance / Support for Education

Program background

Six years have passed since the events of the collapse of the Taliban government, but even now it is not possible to see the current state of Afghanistan's reconstruction in a good light.

JVC believes that now it is the duty of NGOs to present an example of safe and effective international cooperation in conflict areas, standing in solidarity with Afghan people who are suffering after having become the victims of international politics. For the past five years, JVC has built a platform for action through carrying out medical assistance work. We have now become accepted by the Health Ministry, medical NGOs and also the local people themselves. In the future, we will work with the active participation of local people to entrench a regional system of medical services.

Summary of Activities

1.Project for the improvement of mother and child health

2006 Annual Report

1. Support for a local clinic and training for local health workers
   We have worked to implement mother and child health projects, providing necessary medicines for the clinic and medical apparatus and monthly training for local health workers. The new women's clinic opened in August 2006, with a midwife and including the following new facilities: a mother and child health counseling room, a room for giving birth, and a room for the women's dropin clinic.
2. Support for a training course for female medical students
   We have provided equipment (desks and chairs for students, electric vacuum cleaner, fan, freezer, mosquito nets, curtains) and also provided part of the travel costs necessary to transport the students.
3. Follow-up for traditional birth attendants
   In Afghanistan, home births are common, and it is important to show clear examples at village level of a safe and hygienic birth and of the "danger signs" that indicate that it is necessary to bring in help from a medical unit. JVC previously conducted training on these issues for 46 birth attendants in different villages. We have now conducted follow up training for these birth attendants, and as a result there is now the capacity for hygienic and safe births, and it has become possible to spot early signs of danger and to move the patient to a clinic or hospital where they can receive medical treatment.
4. Sanitary education and the provision of safe water
   We have completed the construction of 45 wells in the area which we have undertaken to support. Furthermore, we have conducted 3-5 sessions of sanitary education for each of the groups of people (7-20 families) who use the new wells.

2007 Annual Plan
Bearing in mind the future sustainability of our projects, we will develop the medical assistance work that has up to now focused on the clinic into a regional health system led by the local people themselves. Furthermore, we aim to convert the focus of the local health system from one where diseases are cured by medicines to one where diseases are actually prevented from developing in the first place thanks to improvements in people's standards of living.

In order to facilitate this, we aim to raise awareness within each village as a whole. In addition to provid-ing mobile clinics and mobile women's clinics, we will also launch study group sessions on pregnancy and giving birth aimed at the women in each village.

2.Support for Education

JVC held workshop style teacher training for 70 junior grade teachers from the elementary schools (including the elementary sections of the high schools and middle schools) in Shiwa district. This included the Shigi girls' school which JVC supported in 2004 with the construction of additional buildings. The workshops were intended to enable teachers to use new text books and teaching manuals in their lessons. In the coming year, we will again hold similar train-ing sessions aimed at the remainder of the teachers in Shiwa district.

3. Advocacy

The US forces and NATO have been using "Provincial Reconstruction Teams" to undertake reconstruction work whilst they conduct the war on terrorism. In this context, for local Afghan people the distinction between NGOs and military personnel has become unclear. As an NGO that works on the ground, we have been speaking out from a neutral standpoint.

• 2009/8/28 update: Submission of the statement "Key proposals of NGOs operating in Afghanistan" and the reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs