Healthcare Access to the Poor in Afghanistan

Greetings from the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC)!

Afghanistan has since long remained a fragile country with incessant clashes, wars and insurgencies. Coupled with the major issues of insecurity and instability, the people of Afghanistan are challenged by numerous other issues such as poverty, food insecurity, natural disasters, illiteracy and gender discrimination, to name a few. Additionally, the population is growing due to repatriation of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Iran. There are very poor systems for social services such as housing, education and health.

Accessing basic health facilities in Afghanistan is one of the biggest challenges, let alone quality healthcare. Families living in the far flung mountain areas find it very challenging to reach a basic health unit. Reaching hospitals in distant city areas is a privilege for most of the Afghans living in high mountain valleys with no wherewithal to afford even the travelling cost. Faced with such challenges, required medical care is usually not the highest priority for families. Often they delay seeking necessary treatment until their conditions are dire and complex.

In such circumstances, the presence of the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC) is no less than a miracle. FMIC is a non-profit tertiary hospital based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since its establishment in 2006, FMIC has been providing quality health care and referral services to the Afghan people with special focus on children and mothers. Its services include: inpatient medical and surgical services, clinical consultations, diagnostic services, eHealth (tele-consultations and eLearning), and 24/7 pharmacy services. Hundreds of thousands of families have benefited from FMIC’s high quality care. Besides that, FMIC’s Post-Graduate Medical Education Program (PGME) has been instrumental in imparting advanced training to Afghan physicians, with the goal to develop long-term local capacity.

Cognizant of the local circumstances and impoverished conditions of the many Afghans, FMIC has also established a Patient Welfare Program (PWP) to ensure its unique and international-standard services are available to patients from all across Afghanistan, regardless of their ability to pay. FMIC’s Patient Welfare Programme underwrites the cost of care for people who cannot afford to pay for all or part of their treatment. Given the situation of chronic poverty in Afghanistan, the demands on the Welfare Fund are overwhelming. Since FMIC’s inception in 2006 till the end of December 2018; a total of 504,518 patients, from all over Afghanistan, have been treated with patient welfare funds of which 455,993 were outpatient (clinics, radiology and laboratory) whereas, 48,525 were inpatient. As a whole, FMIC’s Patient Welfare Program has spent US$ 36.2 million so far in providing the medical and surgical care to those in need.

In 2018 alone, 45,840 patients received support from FMIC’s Patient Welfare Programme in amount of US$ 3.3 million. Annually, the programme serves patients from all the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Funds for the Patient Welfare are contributed by FMIC partners i.e. Governments of Afghanistan and France, AKDN and, La Chaîne de l’Espoir. From the GlobalGiving platform, we have received a contribution of USD 6430 which has been helpful in providing subsidized treatment of high quality to 60 patients mainly children from different parts of Afghanistan. Despite all those contributions, there are still funding gaps given the growing demand from our beneficiaries travelling all the way from all corners to FMIC as a last resort.

In the year 2019, over 50,000 patients are projected to need financial support for their care at FMIC. We are grateful to our generous donors who send their contribution through GlobalGiving, yet our needs are rising. To fulfil our needs for 2019 and bridge the funding gaps, the support of caring philanthropists is sought. Let us join hands for this noble cause of saving lives. Envision a child or mother suffering from life-threatening disease in an impoverished and war-affected village. Imagine that just a few dollars from your pocket can save lives and improve the quality of life for so many. For example, $10 will pay for an initial visit to a doctor, $15 will pay for one-night stay of a patient in general ward, $65 will pay for one night stay of a patient in critical condition in ICU and $3000 will pay for an open heart surgery of a child born with heart defect in Afghanistan. Therefore, let us join forces together to save lives and change the fate of individuals/families in one of the most fragile states on the globe.

Thank you for your support!

Please follow the link below to make your generous contribution.

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-premature-babies-in-afghanistan-to-survive/

For stories about FMIC patients, please visit the following Link:

https://www.fmic.org.af/Giving/PatientStory/Pages/default.aspx