FORWARD OPERATING BASE APACHE, Afghanistan - With the International Security Assistance Force nearing the 2014 drawdown from Afghanistan, a major concern for the country's citizens is the suffering the Afghans will potentially face. With wealthy families being expected to leave the country, only the poor citizens will remain to face insurgent regimes.
In a hope to understand the situation of the citizens who may be among those left to survive in this country, Sadiqa Jalliley, Department of Women Affairs, Zabul province, Afghanistan, visited a local village near the city of Qalat June 26, 2013. The visit was to assess the needs and issues of the locals, especially those pertaining to women and children.
"We try to get the DoWA and GIRoA (Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) officials to connect with the villagers outside of Qalat city," said Lt. Oana Zeimen, Female Engagement Team leader, 32nd Romanian Battalion. "We [ISAF] teach them that we are here to help the GiRoA help themselves and their people."
Zeimen said they spoke to GIRoA officials, explaining the needs they discovered within the village. Due to the fact most of the males in the village work for the GIRoA, the ISAF and DoWA sought to speak with the women in hopes they could influence women in the surrounding area about the importance of education and proper hygiene.
During her visit to the village, Sadiqa assessed the problems the local basic clinic faced including not having vehicles to transfer patients to the hospital in Qalat, a high mortality rate among women giving birth due to them not being vaccinated and electric problems which leaves medicine not being stored in proper conditions.
She was also made aware of the clinic seeing more patients than they can manage. The clinic is able to sustain medical care to about 350 patients a month, but sees over 500 monthly.
"This matter doesn't concern only one authority and it's not one person's responsibility or work to help with the issues and problems of the province," said Sadiqa. "All GIRoA must cooperate in order to solve the communities' problems."
She also stated it's not up to the GIRoA officials alone to make efforts to improve the village's situation but also the women should show interest in taking care of themselves and their children.
After seeing the clinic, Sadiqa held a meeting with the village women.
Sadiqa noticed most of the women weren't aware about basic hygiene matters and all of the children had severe skin diseases. When asked why they aren't washing their children daily, one woman admitted that even she changed her clothes only once a month.
The women also discussed the children's ability to go to school. The village has a local school but due to a lack of teachers the school is currently closed and because of the distance, only the wealthy families can afford to drive their older children to school in Qalat.
"The lack of education among the women leads to a slow process of changing the future in the Afghan society," said Sadiqa. "The women need to understand that they play an important role in raising future generations and it's only up to them to decide how this future will look."
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