A new mother holds her premature infant at the CURE International Hospital in Kabul, which houses the country's first modern neonatal intensive care unit. If not for the CURE hospital, she could have lost her baby and possibly even her own life.
A CURE International hospital and family clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan
is helping to diminish infant and maternal mortality rates in the war-torn
country.
The Afghan Health Consortium
invited CURE to take over the hospital in 2005, after coalition forces had
partially restored it. Since then, CURE has opened a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
and a maternity ward with ultrasound equipment. It also established an OB/GYN Fellowship training program and OB/GYN
training for nurses and midwives. For
the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, CURE developed the baseline competencies
that staff midwives and General Medicine doctors need to meet in order to
complete their training.
A recent study by Johns
Hopkins University
found that infant mortality rates in Afghanistan have declined by 18
percent since 2003, from 165 to 135 per 1,000. The time frame of the decline coincides with the establishment of its
hospital. Although CURE does not take sole
credit for the decline, it does believe its programs have improved maternity
care in Afghanistan.
CURE provides advanced training to Afghan nationals in obstetrics, gynecology, midwifery, as well as orthopedic and cleft lip/palate surgery.Its hospital and clinic see 96,000 patients annually, including 110 women each month. It has received numerous accolades from the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, which recognizes the importance of training of midwives and doctors in Afghanistan.
CURE International is devoted to bringing physical cures and spiritual healing to disabled children in Third World countries.
