“I still hear my mother’s cries and moans in pain. I can recall how exhausted she finally was before she surrendered to death”, says Freshta a student of midwifery at the Herat Institute of Health Studies.

The Republic of Korea has stepped up its long-running support for UNFPA’s response to gender-based violence (GBV) in Afghanistan with a recent contribution of $5.4 million.

These funds will help sustain UNFPA’s projects, established through the national government as well as local governments, to prevent and respond to GBV through the end of 2020. These projects are currently active in 11 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, and will expand over the next year to reach 24 provinces.  

It was midnight in the remote mountainous village of Arvige in Chesht-e Sharif district, Herat province of Afghanistan. Khurshid, an Afghan mother was 16 weeks pregnant with her 5^th child. Amena, 22, the midwife at the UNFPA supported Family Health House (FHH) funded by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation; was examining heavily bleeding and unconscious Khurshid. Amena had been working at the FHH for two years and knew it was a miscarriage, one of the main causes of maternal death in Afghanistan.

With the technical and financial support of UNFPA, Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan established its second obstetric fistula treatment centre in Herat regional hospital. UNFPA provided trainings for 9 health workers including surgeons, midwives and an anesthesiologist. In this centre, 27 patients with pelvic floor disorder including obstetric fistula have received successful repair surgeries.

21, November 2017 – The Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) with technical and financial support from UNFPA – the United Nations Population Fund handed over Family Life Education material to the Ministry of Education.

The material developed, for grades 4 to 12, by MoPH and UNFPA is based on comprehensive research and meets international standards that is cultural sensitive and age appropriate with full consideration of Islamic teachings and the Afghan cultural context.

Worlds Apart: Reproductive Health and Rights in an Age of Inequality

Unchecked inequality, failure to protect the rights of the poorest women could lead to unrest, undermine peace and world’s development goals, new UNFPA report warns.

• Only about half of the world’s women hold paid jobs
• Below 20 per cent of women in Afghanistan hold a paid job
• Only 23 per cent of girls attend higher education in Afghanistan

Dilara was 16 when she lost her parents. Her paternal uncle who looked after her, wanted her to get married. She didn’t. Against the odds, Dilara defied her uncle, overcame the family pressure and fought the guilt of knowing how desperately her family needed the dowry money her marriage would bring. She pursued education.