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Photos: The ‘silent bravery’ of Afghanistan’s healthcare workers

Afghan health professionals – thousands of female among them – are defying daily challenges to provide critical care.

Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
At Wardak Provincial Hospital in central Afghanistan, people wait to be seen by a doctor. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
Published On 19 Sep 2023

After decades of instability, drought and natural disasters, Afghanistan remains in the midst of a crushing humanitarian crisis.

Every day, millions face the grim reality of living with poor or no access to healthcare and food, putting them at risk of malnutrition and disease outbreaks. Women and girls bear a heavier burden as the rollback of their rights limits their access to healthcare, education and freedom of movement.

Yet, despite the ongoing crisis, Afghan health professionals – thousands of female workers among them – defy daily challenges to provide critical healthcare. With support from humanitarian agencies and donor partners, doctors, nurses, midwives, community health workers, vaccinators and others, the health workers bring life-saving care to millions of Afghans.

“The dedication and silent bravery of Afghanistan’s healthcare workers is truly remarkable,” said Dr Fouzia Shafique, UNICEF Afghanistan’s health lead. “Thanks to their tireless work, nearly 20 million Afghans received health and nutrition services in the first half of this year. That’s almost half of Afghanistan’s entire population.”

In tangible terms, UNICEF and its partners support Afghanistan’s health professionals by covering the operating costs of more than 2,400 healthcare facilities, supporting medical supplies, in addition to paying the salaries of approximately 27,000 healthcare professionals, of whom almost 10,000 are women.

Yet, healthcare needs in Afghanistan continue to rise. The recent alert issued by the World Health Organization underscores the urgency of ramping up investment in healthcare services provision in Afghanistan, safeguarding decades of investments made by the international community.

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In the past two years, funding from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund and Global Financing Facility through the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and several other donors has enabled UNICEF, WHO and ICRC to keep the health system afloat.

But this is not a long-term solution. While humanitarian organisations play a vital role, they cannot be a substitute for a well-functioning public health system. To ensure that millions of Afghan children grow up healthy, Afghanistan urgently needs a healthcare system that meets their needs.

This photo essay was provided by UNICEF.

Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Babies sharing incubators in a neonatal intensive care unit at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul. In Afghanistan, four out of 100 babies die within the first month of their birth, accounting for almost 50 percent of under-five mortality. Malnutrition affects many pregnant women and their babies, contributing to maternal and neonatal mortality. Afghanistan has long suffered some of the highest maternal and neonatal mortality rates in the world. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
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Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Ten-month-old Adila is at the Wardak Provincial Hospital in central Afghanistan to receive treatment for acute watery diarrhoea, which can be life-threatening if untreated. Amid high temperatures and water shortages, Afghanistan is grappling with multiple disease outbreaks. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Twelve-month-old Rehana is diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition with complications and admitted to the Badghis Provincial Hospital in western Afghanistan for treatment. Nearly 85 percent of children in Afghanistan are not receiving the variety and quantity of foods they need, making them less resilient and more likely to succumb to illness. [Omid Fazel/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
A midwife attends a patient at a health centre in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan. With improved security, more women are seeking health services. In the past, women who preferred to deliver at home are now coming to health centres to deliver. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
A pharmacist fills a prescription at the Wardak Provincial Hospital’s pharmacy in central Afghanistan. Availability of medicines remains a challenge across the country in public health facilities. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Every day, Abdul Latif walks for miles to bring the vaccines to children in remote villages in Nuristan in eastern Afghanistan. He wades through rivers and climbs hills in scorching heat at genuine security risks. Latif is one of the thousands of vaccinators who ensure no child is missed with life-saving vaccines. [Mark Naftalin/UNICEF]
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Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
A nurse at the Sawki District Hospital in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan prepares a vaccine. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Five-year-old Narmeena receives polio drops during a house-to-house campaign in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two polio-endemic countries in the world. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Shuturkhan Primary Health Centre in Ghor province in western Afghanistan has the capacity to deliver health services to about 3,000 people. [Mihalis Gripiotis/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Female staff are crucial to every aspect of UNICEF’s humanitarian response in Afghanistan. They play a critical role in delivering healthcare services in Afghanistan, especially to those who may not have access to care otherwise, such as children, women, the elderly, and those with disabilities. [Mihalis Gripiotis/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Fatima Adeli, a doctor with the UNICEF-supported mobile health and nutrition team (MHNT), attends to patients in Nili district in Daikundi province of central Afghanistan. Throughout the country, MHNTs provide a lifeline to underserved communities in hard-to-reach areas. Monthly visits by these teams provide services, including maternal, newborn and child health, nutrition, and psychosocial counselling. [Mark Naftalin/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Rahima Karimi, a community health worker in Herat province in western Afghanistan, pays a monthly visit to Ghuncha Gul, who is nine months pregnant. 'I educate pregnant women in my community on the importance of visiting the clinic at least four times during the pregnancy and encourage them to deliver at the health centre. I have seen many women suffer during their pregnancies. I wanted to help. That is why I became a community health worker.' [Mukhtar Nikrawa/UNICEF]
Keeping Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Afloat
Zarmina receives Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic Food (RUTF) at an MHNT in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan. RUTF is an energy-dense, micronutrient paste made using peanuts, sugar, milk powder, oil, vitamins and minerals that help to treat children with severe acute malnutrition. In 2023, RUTF helped treat more than 400,000 children in Afghanistan for severe acute malnutrition. [Aziz Karimi/UNICEF]