Providing Hope and Healthcare in the Panjshir Valley
Facing food insecurity, economic crisis, unemployment, poverty and the freezing of international aid, life is increasingly precarious for families across Afghanistan. This is especially true for those living in remote areas, like the Panjshir Valley.
Every morning, children wake up knowing that they will have to help support their families by fetching water from the river, tending to livestock, gathering firewood.
Schools, when they are open, are not accessible to everyone. Financial constraints force many families to make difficult choices between food, healthcare, transportation, or buying the books needed to ensure their children’s education.
Yet, it is a majestic place. Throughout the grand range of the Hindu Kush, houses sit nestled between mountain slopes, and dirt paths wind past barley fields and streams.
Afghans living in this remote Valley struggle to access essential services.
Electricity is intermittent, and access to the internet and digital devices is very limited. Communications are poor, especially during the region’s harsh, snowy winters. Healthcare facilities are often poorly equipped and difficult to reach with the little means available. Cuts to international funding lead to shortages of equipment, medicines and staff.
As always, the most vulnerable pay the price.
The EMERGENCY facility supporting Panjshir’s rural communities
In the middle of the Panjshir valley sits EMERGENCY’s Anabah medical complex, home to a Surgical-Paediatric Centre and Maternity Centre. This specialised healthcare facility is completely free of charge, and serves as the referral hospital for the country’s north.
S. arrived at the hospital, accompanied by her aunt. They come from a remote village several hours away.
S. has already lost family: her mother did not give birth in a hospital, and died from haemorrhaging after her baby was born.
Little S. arrived at our hospital suffering from several conditions, including acute malnutrition, severe pneumonia, high fever, circulatory shock, sepsis, convulsions, and a congenital heart disease.
Her complex condition required a long hospital stay, but S. was treated successfully and discharged.
A week later, her aunt and niece came back to our Anabah facility. S. had contracted measles and her pneumonia had returned. Once again, she was admitted to the intensive care unit, and once again she responded well to treatment, returning home in a much better condition.
Our paediatricians were impressed by her strength and determination.
Every day, we meet people from the Panjshir Valley seeking treatment for themselves and their children, trying to overcome geographical, economic and cultural barriers.
I. was on a trip with his family. They wanted to go swimming in the river, and cool off from the heat.
On the way home, they got into accident with another vehicle. I. was rushed to our Surgical Centre in Anabah, where he underwent two operations. An internal fixator helped stabilise the fracture to his femur.
He stayed in the hospital for several weeks before being discharged.
Supporting Maternal and Child Health in the Panjshir Valley
EMERGENCY’s Anabah hospital is also an important facility for promoting maternal and child health in the region. Our gynaecologists and midwives provide qualified and safe care to women from the Valley and its surrounding areas. Around 600 births take place here every month.
“When they are admitted to the hospital, our patients enter a comfortable space. Each has her own bed, her own linens, free access to hot water, and free medication.
Keren Picucci, Gynaecologist at EMERGENCY's Maternity Centre in Anabah
The staff who support them are kind and care about the health of their fellow women. It is not just a place to recover, it is also an experience of dignity.”
A healthcare network for remote villages
The centre is connected to a network of 16 First Aid Posts and Primary Healthcare Clinics that act as health outposts in remote villages for the Anabah facility. This network is often the only bulwark for hundreds of thousands of people living in this region.
In four of these clinics, we offer specific sexual and reproductive health services thanks to the work of local Afghan midwives, whom we have trained to tailor our activities to meet the most urgent needs of the communities.
Afghanistan has a maternal mortality rate almost three times higher than the global average: for every 100,000 births, 600 women lose their lives (OCHA).
Our clinics provide ante-natal care in a region where access to diagnostic tools, such as ultrasound machines, is very limited. EMERGENCY midwives accompany women step by step throughout their pregnancies, ensuring careful monitoring, practical health advice and continuous support until the moment of delivery.
“What we see every day is a dramatic impoverishment of the population, which is reflected in the severity of obstetric complications. I remember the admission of a young, healthy 22-year-old woman who had given birth at home a few hours earlier without any assistance and suffered severe bleeding. These are unforeseen events that could easily be addressed if preventative measures were taken, but here they risk turning into a disaster."
Keren Picucci, Gynaecologist at EMERGENCY's Maternity Centre in Anabah
The Challenges of Giving Birth in Afghanistan
When she gave birth to twins, only F. survived: her tiny baby’s twin sister died shortly after birth.
F. weighed just over 1 kg. After the delivery, we immediately transferred her to the Anabah hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
For three weeks, F. received comprehensive care. Later, she was transferred to the maternity ward, where she gradually began alternating tube feeding with breastfeeding.
Her mother, D., is trying out the ‘Kangaroo’ technique with her baby: a practice based on skin-to-skin contact to promote the baby’s growth and development, to help form physiological stability between body temperature, breathing and heartbeat, and to strengthen the bond between mother and child.
Poverty often forces Afghan women to give birth at home, because they lack the resources to make long and expensive journeys to reach health facilities. Kabul is hundreds of kilometres away: an unmanageable journey for those who cannot afford to pay for travel or a few litres of fuel.
If they do manage to reach a health facility, the lack or complete absence of female staff often forces them to give up on treatment.
The consequences of these limitations restrict essential development in newborns, and particularly impact women carrying high-risk pregnancies.
"I noticed a trend in the medical records. The Dari names of many patients I have met over the years mean: flower, budding flower, mountain flower, fragrant flower. Now I feel a tremendous pang of sadness when I remember their meanings. When I hold a newborn baby in my arms, I feel a stark contrast between the delicacy of their names and the difficulties that lay ahead of them."
Keren Picucci, Gynaecologist at EMERGENCY's Maternity Centre in Anabah
Our Anabah Maternity Centre employs around 150 Afghan colleagues who are committed to providing free, high-quality care to Afghan women.
Every new birth in this Valley is a sign of hope and light for the entire community, even in the most difficult times.
This project is funded by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid
