Afghanistan: Saving babies through immunization
A father who lost his eight-month old daughter to pneumonia when Taliban rulers forbid a male doctor to treat her is now saving the lives of other people’s babies—through simple vaccination. Ghulam Sahee and his eldest daughter, Paristu, are among a growing number of community workers slowly making a difference in mother and child health in Afghanistan.
They’ve got their work cut out for them. In Afghanistan, an estimated one in four children dies before his or her fifth birthday. One woman in eight dies in childbirth. But with the help of World Vision’s “Better Health for Afghan Mothers and Children” project, father and daughter are working to fill the gaps in Afghanistan’s community health care.
Guhlam Sahee now works at the same health clinic from which his baby daughter was turned away twelve years ago. He also does “outreach”, traveling to 34 villages throughout the Karokh district,while Paristu provides vaccinations to mothers and infants who visit the clinic.
Desperate situation
The desperate situation of women and children is reflected in current statistics, which indicate Afghanistan has the worst infant mortality rate and the second worst maternal mortality rate in the world. Studies show that 40 per cent of child deaths are due to preventable conditions such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia. (World Bank, 2006)
Vaccinators like Ghulam Sahee and his daughter, Paristu, have a steep hill to climb in addressing the health needs of the local community. But Ghulam Sahee is positive, noting the changes he has witnessed since the clinic opened in the early 1990s. Before then, this rural community lacked any public health services whatsoever.
Gradual but certain change
“I was the first to work in immunization in Karokh. That was even before the Taliban. When we started, there was no electricity here. No radio. No newspapers. No education. We had only a small broken fridge and almost no stock of medicines.”
Public health campaigns were unheard of. “We had so many problems with people not understanding the importance of vaccinations, especially women. Very few women were coming to the clinic.”
“Then we started talking with the people in the community. We talked more and more, about the necessity of vaccinations. We showed them strong pictures of people who were paralyzed by polio. We shared information with them about polio and how vaccinations can prevent this.”
Improving child survival
Step by step, inroads were made. “Over time, we have seen such a very big change,” smiles Ghulam Sahee. “Now, many of the women come even three days before they are scheduled!”
World Vision’s “Better Health for Afghan Mothers and Children” aims to improve child survival and maternal health in Heart Province, by identifying and bridge gaps in community health care. Utilizing an existing network of community health workers, World Vision maps local communities across the province, identifying pregnant women and scheduling home visits in what’s referred to as a “continuum of care”—from pregnancy through childbirth and well into infancy, at least until the age of two.
These registries will help health workers employ “timed counseling”, a method of delivering timed messages for mothers through each period of the life-cycle, but especially related to antenatal care, birth preparedness, newborn care, infant and child feeding and immunization.
