America's North Shore Journal

"My name is Lat­i­fah Bak­tash and I am in charge of the Mid­wife School in Dai Kundi province," announced the mid­wife prin­ci­pal as onlook­ers seated in blue lawn chairs lis­tened atten­tively dur­ing the first Mid­wife grad­u­a­tion ceremony.

"I have been a prac­tic­ing mid­wife for nine years," remarked Bak­tash. "Five years ago, I was a teacher at a mid­wife school in the Saman­gan Dis­trict. I know how badly the peo­ple of Dai Kundi need mid­wives and I'm hon­ored to be an inte­gral part of the schools development."

"The Mid­wife School was requested by the peo­ple, for the peo­ple," con­tin­ued Bak­tash. "Our goal is to train the mid­wives with mod­ern infor­ma­tion and tech­nol­ogy so they can serve all preg­nant moth­ers and save lives. The Min­istry of Health built this school and encour­aged women to attend. Now, we have fif­teen stu­dents grad­u­at­ing and we hope to have more in the future."

The first Mid­wife grad­u­a­tion, Oct. 20, was a huge suc­cess. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Coali­tion forces and from dif­fer­ent news sta­tions attended the cer­e­mony along with over a hun­dred civil­ians. The school con­tin­ues to recruit mid­wives and hopes to grad­u­ate another class of edu­cated women by December.

"The Mid­wife School is unique in Dai Kundi because of the Haz­ara pop­u­la­tion, which is pro­gres­sive towards women," explained an Army Cap­tain work­ing with the pro­gram. "Not only does this school pro­vide a valu­able edu­ca­tion, it also rep­re­sents Afghanistan's attempt to legit­imize and increase equal rights."

DVIDS
Story by Sgt. Debra Richardson