HEWAD Free Mother-Child Health (MCH) Care Clinic in Kabul: 2002 to 2005

In September 2002, MEPO began its first new major project in Afghanistan – a free mother child-care clinic on the outskirts of Kabul. With the great influx of refugee returnees to Kabul (500,000 the first year), the already-decimated medical services have been unable to provide desperately needed services and facilities for the people.

In order to help meet some of the need, MEPO established a mother-child care clinic in an area outside of Kabul where 50,000 families have no medical facilities. In particular, women and children have great difficulty in finding medical care. So to this end, MEPO established the HEWAD MCH Clinic (MCH = Mother-Child Health) .
[HEWAD is MEPO’s implementing partner for projects in Afghanistan, assisting in administration and in negotiating the governmental bureaucracy. But the programs are designed and implemented by MEPO and the staff and supported by MEPO’s generous donors.]

The HEWAD MCH has developed a reputation as one of the best clinics in the area, serving close to 2,000 patients a month. Patients come from far-away districts to  receive services. Women and children are provided with free check-ups by the in-house gynecologist or pediatrician or midwife, lab services by the lab technician including blood, stool and urine tests, and nutritional advice by the health educator. Medicines and vitamins are provided at a nominal fee. (around 5% of the cost in order to reduce abuses by the patients.)

In addition, the clinic has broadened its work, offering many more services than just seeing patients:

* In fall 2002, MEPO and the clinic staff invited pregnant women from the area to the clinic for a meal of lamb stew and rice, offering them an enriching healthy meal of meat and vegetables. For many of them it was probably the only meat and protein they had had for weeks.

* In May 2003 the clinic was the site for a week-long intensive training for local health workers (nurses, etc.) conducted by MEPO’s doctor, providing crucial medical information in areas such as nutrition, history-taking, first aid, preventive medicine, etc. A small medical kit of basic equipment was also given to each participant at the end of the training.

* During the summer months of 2003, the clinic midwife and pediatrician offered several week-long pre-natal/pregnancy training classes for the pregnant patients of the clinic. Most deliveries in Afghanistan take place at home, and only occasionally is a midwife present. So each pregnant woman was provided with a pregnancy kit at the end of each training in order to have clean and appropriate supplies for her to use at the time of her baby’s birth. Since maternal and infant mortality in Afghanistan is among the highest in the world, these classes have long waiting lists of women eager to learn how to prevent tragedy.

* A six-month literacy class was offered for women, held at the clinic daily for 1-2 hours. This opportunity for women to enter into the world of the written word was amazing in its empowerment of the women who attended. Many of the women struggled, overcoming resistance by family members and heavy workloads at home to attend the class every day and learn to read and write and do math. Many of the women cried at the end of the class, emotional and grateful to their teacher for what she had taught them.

* The clinic works with the Ministry of Public Health to provide vaccinations to children and women, such as measles and tetanus. This is a crucial service that is vastly underprovided in Afghanistan, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children daily annually of measles and tetanus transmitted to babies at birth is a major public health problem.

Besides the Kabul MCH clinic, MEPO continues to support the MCH clinic that it established in 2001 in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan:

Iman Free Mother-Child Health (MCH) Clinic, Southeast Afghanistan: May 2001 to Present

In May 2001, MEPO sponsored and established a free MCH center in a province of southeast Afghanistan named Nangrahar. The center carries the name Iman ("Faith") and offers vital services to deprived populations. (Another MCH clinic, Solh ("Peace"), was also opened in 2001 and was completely supported by MEPO; however, the Solh MCH was closed in 2003 because of the availability of other health facilities in the area.)

The Iman  MCH center has provided essentially free health services for women and children, which includes free checkup by a doctor, lab tests, and free vitamins and medicines. To keep the operation of the center respectable, we charge the equivalent of about 3 cents (USD) for each patient, and we have a policy of waiving that fee for those who are unable to pay.

MEPO provided a complete budget for both clinics to furnish the lab (microscope, centrifuge, etc.); purchase clinic equipment and furniture; cover the rent and the salaries of a male and female doctor, lab technician, pharmacist, vaccinator, nurse and a guard for one year; plus a budget to purchase medicines to supplement those given by WHO inside Afghanistan. MEPO was also successful in importing into Afghanistan many multivitamins and other types of vitamins to distribute, plus a great deal of first aid and suturing materials, as well as other minor medical equipment, thanks to our donors. The managing and the supervising body for the health center is HEWAD, an NGO based in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

MEPO is continually seeking sponsors to support the clinic to ensure its crucial existence.
See Financial Support for more information.