New Clinic Offers Place of Healing
The people of the Shindand District, Heart province, Afghanistan, had reason to rejoice June 23, as a new medical clinic opened in their district.
Immediately after the celebratory ribbon was cut, the doors to the clinic were opened and over 450 villagers, mostly women and children, poured inside to seek treatment and medication from both Afghan and Coalition medical care providers.
“My baby has been sick for at least three days now and I’ve been able to do nothing but pray,” said one local mother, who brought her three-month-old daughter to the clinic. “If this clinic hadn’t opened, I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t have enough money to take her anywhere.”
After showing her baby to a doctor and receiving medication from the pharmacy, the young woman expressed a sigh of relief.
“The doctor said the baby has dysentery, but with this medication she will be fine,” the woman said. “I have three other children at home and this is now one less worry for me.”
The opening day’s success was extremely rewarding for the U.S. Special Operations Civil Affairs team that oversaw the clinic’s development.
“The locals in Shindand identified a need for this clinic because the villagers couldn’t receive medical care unless they went a couple of hours down the road to Herat,” said an American Civil Affairs team leader. “Many of them have no money, no jobs and no cars, so going to Herat is out of the question anyway.”
The clinic’s opening was the culmination of several months of hard work by Afghan villagers and their American partners.
“My CA team took the request for a clinic from village elders to the district leader and health advisor, and finally to the provincial minister of health, who set guidance for developing a clinic that plugs into the Afghan national strategy for healthcare,” the team leader explained.
The Afghan Ministry of Health determined the type of healthcare facility that was required based upon the population of the area. Given Shindand District’s population, the MoH determined that a basic healthcare facility was sufficient.
“The basic healthcare clinic will offer family practice, pediatrics, OBGYN and wound management services to the villagers,” said the American medic. “We’ll also offer limited nutritional products geared toward pediatrics, including baby formula, biscuits, juice and vitamins.”
Eight Afghans are currently employed at the clinic in medical, cleaning, maintenance and security positions. This represents a positive step forward for an area with a high unemployment rate. Three of the employees are women.
An Afghan doctor, physician assistant and the two female nurses will be regular employees at the clinic. Additionally, the Afghan National Army and Commandos of the 207th Corps will provide doctors and medics to the clinic on a volunteer basis.
The 1st Kandak, 1st Brigade, 207th Corps will also help with security.
The clinic was opened with a combination of American and Afghan health care providers but will soon be staffed solely by Afghans.
“As time goes by, the Coalition force presence will decrease and we will step into a monitoring role,” the medic said. “Eventually, it will be entirely an Afghan operation and we’ll just pop in now and again to make sure things are running smoothly.”
Working together, the medical providers from both nations offer a place of healing, caring and hope for villagers residing in the Shindand District.
“Seeing this project come to fruition in a reasonable amount of time is extremely rewarding. It takes the sting away from being apart from my own family on multiple deployments,” the team leader commented. “The villagers have access to free healthcare now and a handful of others are employed because of the clinic.”
CJTF-101
Written by Spc. Anna Perry CJSOTF-Afghanistan Public Affairs
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