In the past year, World Vision has delivered more than $2 million US worth of drugs to woefully under-supplied health facilities in rural Western Afghanistan. The shipments included painkillers, antibiotics, anti-malarial medication and vitamins, as well as bandages, sutures and syringes.

Medical Assistance Programs (MAP) International generously donated the medical supplies to World Vision.

To the doctors in Afghanistan, the monetary worth of the drugs pales in comparison to their humanitarian value. Having clinics well stocked with medicines and medical supplies means patients can be treated locally, instead of having to travel a day's journey by donkey to see a doctor.

The Noor Eye Clinic and the burn ward at the regional hospital in Herat have also benefited from the shipments.

The burn ward is not for the faint of heart, where facilities are very basic by western standards. Female patients fill the beds; some are there because of attempts to end their desperate lives through self-immolation, others because of accidents. Before the shipments arrived, there was often little hope for these women. But thanks to these medical supplies delivered by World Vision, doctors are now holding on to hope for their patients, as they never could before.