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After more than twenty years of being in the country, the ICRC is still providing a range of services to those affected by armed conflict in Afghanistan. These include supporting medical facilities, providing emergency assistance materials, visiting detainees, putting families back in touch and educating children about the dangers of unexploded munitions. See complete photo gallery on ICRC website.
CICR / KOKIC, Marko / V-P-AF-E-01031
As the situation in Afghanistan
deteriorated throughout 2007 and into
2008, civilians continued to be caught
up in the violence with many killed or
injured. Others were forced to flee
their homes joining the tens of
thousands already displaced by the
fighting. The ICRC provides emergency
assistance for the displaced in the form
of food and non-food items such as
tarpaulins, blankets, soap and kitchen
sets. Emergency aid is normally
distributed in partnership with the
Afghan Red Crescent.
REF:
CICR / KOKIC, Marko / V-P-AF-E-01138
Kandahar, Mirwais Hospital, intensive
care unit. Family members visit a
gunshot wound victim.
Jalalabad Public Health Hospital 1,
Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar and
Sheberghan Hospital in Jawzjan all
benefit from ICRC support and training.
The objective of ICRC support is to
maintain the ability to provide high-
quality basic surgical services to
victims of the conflict and other
emergency cases. In 2007, hospitals
regularly assisted by the ICRC provided
care for over 34,000 in-patients and
more than 176,000 outpatients and
performed more than 19,000 operations.
REF:
CICR/KOKIC, Marko / V-P-AF-E-01171
Kandahar, Mirwais hospital. Pharmacist
and ICRC pharmacist.
The ICRC provides hospitals in Kabul and
elsewhere in the country with essential
medical supplies. It also furnishes
supplies, financial support and
supervision to eight Afghan Red Crescent
clinics in the east and south of the
country. Over twelve months, these
clinics carried out more than 75,000
consultations and vaccinated more than
64,000 women and children.
REF:
CICR/KOKIC, Marko / V-P-AF-E-00836
Kabul, ICRC orthopaedic centre. A
technician manuctures an orthesis. All
staff are themselves physically disabled.
The ICRC has been providing orthopaedic
and rehabilitation services and helping
disabled people reintegrate into the
community since 1988. This has benefited
not only landmine victims but also many
people suffering other kinds of motor
impairment.
The ICRC runs six orthopaedic centres –
in Kabul, Mazar, Herat, Gulbahar,
Faizabad and Jalalabad. They offer a
home-care service for patients with
spinal cord injuries, which provides
them and their families with medical,
economic and social support. In 2007,
these centres produced over 14,000
prostheses and orthoses.
REF:
CICR/KOKIC, Marko / V-P-AF-E-00943
Dako, some 35 km from Kabul. Afghanistan
Red Crescent Society carries out mine
risk education to the village primary
school.
The ICRC gives the Afghan Red Crescent
Society technical and financial support
to boost its capacity to deliver
programmes and services. The ICRC
supports the Afghan Red Crescent’s mine-
risk education programme, which aims to
prevent injuries and deaths from mines
and explosive remnants of war. Children
are taught to recognize weapons, not to
touch them and to report what they have
discovered to local authorities. In 2007,
ICRC and Afghan Red Crescent staff held
sessions for 140,000 adults and more
than 328,000 children.
REF:
CICR/K. Zaman / V-P-AF-E-01271
Jalalabad, public health hospital.
Construction of a water tank by the ICRC.
As part of its work in this area, the
ICRC repairs urban and rural water
networks, carries out hospital
renovation and sanitation work and
provides hygiene promotion and
environmental health training. It also
renovates bathrooms, latrines and septic
tanks in detention facilities.
REF:
CICR/KOKIC, Marko / V-P-AF-E-00911
Kandahar, central prison. ICRC delegate
talks with a security detainee in the
juvenile section.
The ICRC regularly visits people held by
the Afghan authorities or by
international forces (US and NATO), in
connection with the armed conflict, and
assesses their detention conditions and
treatment, and whether fundamental
judicial guarantees are being respected.
If necessary, the ICRC holds
confidential talks with the detaining
authorities to communicate its concerns
and seek improvements.
REF:
CICR/KEUSEN, Robert / V-P-AF-E-01231
Kabul, ICRC delegation. Since January
2008, the ICRC has enabled detainees to
speak with their relatives via video-
conference calls.
The ICRC helps families and detainees
maintain contact with each other. The
ICRC has set up a call centre on the
premises of its delegation in Kabul and
a similar centre has been created at
Bagram. Each party to the call is able
to see the other on a screen. Here,
dozens of families from around the
country have been able to speak to their
loved ones.
REF:
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
