In the last few decades, though there have been claims otherwise, the people of Afghanistan have not been able to get their rudimentary requirements of life easily. Since the birth of a democratic government there have been certain improvements but the tangible changes are yet to be observed. Most of the issues that are related to the lives of poor civilians of Afghanistan have been handled on short-term basis. The donors’ money has supported specific projects that have only assisted the people for a specific period of time; in the meanwhile in certain cases these projects only exist on the papers.

One of the fundamental problems which Afghan people have been fighting with is the issue of wretched state of health services. The health facilities are not proper and most of the diseases that people suffer from stay untreated even in the large cities of the country.

To expose the nature of the wretched situation, a news report on Sunday, October 20, revealed that more than a dozen children have lost their lives in past one and a half month in northeastern Badakhshan’s Khawan district due to poor health facilities and lack of required medicine. The deaths were confirmed by Maulvi Abdulhai Tayebi, the provincial chief, who paid a visit to the area. He said that most the children were suffering from cough and chest infections because of severe cold weather. He said that when he reached the area people were protesting and they were asking why their representatives had ignored their problems.

It should be noted that a health clinic had been built in the district at the cost of $440,000 three years ago, which was now at the verge of collapse because of the negligence of the relevant authorities and corruption. All that the clinic has now is a nurse and dearth of medicine.

This situation is really pathetic and there are many places in the country where such facts exist, but there is no attention paid at all.  

At the same time, the quality of services provided by government hospitals is really very low, their number is not sufficient and they are not established in most of the remote areas; therefore, most of the people do not have access to them. On the other hand private hospitals have been established that can, in no way, be afforded by the people who do not have enough food to eat.

Such a scenario is really dreadful and there should be serious efforts to deal with the situation. Short term projects will never solve the health issues in Afghanistan. Afghan government and the supporting nations must pursue long-term strategies to handle the issue, if they want to help the people of Afghanistan.