Healthcare Access to the Poor in Afghanistan

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

Since 2006, FMIC has served 5.63 Million patients providing a wide array of services to the people of Afghanistan. Ranging from in-patient and out-patient services to complicated surgeries and high-tech diagnostic services; FMIC has made a difference in the lives of Afghans living in very uncertain and turbulent circumstances. The evolution of FMIC from a children’s hospital to an-all-inclusive healthcare facility in 13 years speaks volumes about its impacts.  With the availability of 169 beds, modern facilities and above all, well-trained human resources, FMIC has emerged as a hospital of choice for people from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. With all its unique services and impact on the lives of the community, FMIC has proven to be a success story of Afghanistan’s reconstruction process not only by offering high quality services but also by adopting an inclusive approach to service delivery through its projects and programs.   

As a non-profit institution, FMIC envisions to be a high-quality tertiary healthcare facility equally accessible for all in Afghanistan. In this respect, FMIC’s Patient Welfare Program (PWP) is in place to ensure its unique and high-quality 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 of the Welfare Fund are overwhelming. Since FMIC’s inception in 2006 till the end of April 2019; a total of 518,188 patients, from all over Afghanistan, have been treated with patient welfare funds of which 468,187 were outpatient (clinics, radiology, and laboratory) whereas, 50,001 were inpatient. As a whole, FMIC’s Patient Welfare Program has spent US$ 37.1 million so far in providing the medical and surgical care to those in need.

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 8,000, which has been helped provide subsidized treatment of high quality to 75 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 different corners of Afghanistan 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 a 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