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Coalition helps Afghan women survive

  • Published
  • By Pvt. Tamara Gabbard
  • CJTF-101 Pubic Affairs
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan --  Service members with Task Force Med, with help from UunHee Lee, a nurse and midwife with the Korean Hospital here, taught the first all-female International Medical Mentorship and Training Program recently.

The introduction class is normally a two-week course. However, due to restrictions placed on most Afghan women preventing them from leaving their families for extended periods of time, this particular class was cut back to four days.

"This is the first female-based class and we want it to cause a ripple effect throughout Afghanistan by bringing in more Afghan women," said Air Force Maj. Angelina Dunbar, TF Med plans and special programs director. "It is an opportunity for [Afghans] to see how a more advanced hospital functions, and we will continue to offer the two-week course."

Teaching the women is important because Afghan men are not always agreeable about their wives seeing male doctors. This creates problems with many health issues in the female population. For instance, there are approximately 26,000 pregnancy-related deaths a year in Afghanistan, said Dunbar.

Local officials are planning a three-phase, 90-day, in-residency course, said Dunbar.

Phase one will be taught at the U.S.-led Craig Joint Theater Hospital here, and will focus on primary care and community health by giving them a mixture of lectures and hands-on training.

The second phase will be held at the Korean Hospital here, and will hone in on primary care, specifically in the area of parental care, pregnancy, and mother-child care. It will also include common and chronic disease prevention, and administrative classes such as hospital systems and paperwork management. These will also be taught with lectures and hands-on training.

The final phase will be held at the Egyptian Hospital here, and will deal with in-patient services and surgery, and will be taught the same way as the previous sections.

There will be pre- and post-testing, and students will receive a certification of completion.
"This plan for the program will allow the students to hone in on their skills and allow them to observe how hospitals from three different countries see patients," said Dunbar.

Taliban threats make it difficult to get women to come, said Dunbar.

"With the help of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, we are trying to get them to come for the program," she explained. "After [the nationals] are recommended by the PRTs, they are screened before they are able to participate."

The goal for this program is for the country of Afghanistan to become more self-sufficient, said Dunbar.

"By training women, it is going to drastically affect how people are taken care of in this country and help with all areas of their lives," said Dunbar. "With this self-sufficiency that we want to create, we hope that it instils faith in the hearts of their own people."