Community Members Say Cash-for-Work Project Helps Pregnant Women Stay Safe in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan

Nooruddin, Badakhshan Province

Afghanistan has the highest maternal mortality rate of any Asian country, and a large percentage of this can be attributed to the inaccessibility of hospitals and healthcare professionals due to a lack of traversable roads between remote villages.

Nooruddin is a resident of a small village in the Badakhshan province, where many community members have been employed in Cash-for-Work projects by Uplift and Community Driven Development Organization (CDDO) to rehabilitate a road and build a protection wall to prevent future damage. Nooruddin says the road has already provided abundant benefits for himself and his fellow community members.

“The topography of this area has many zigzags due to high mountains. The remoteness causes a lower standard of life, full of problems. [Before,] we had no proper road and the pregnant women were carried in beds or on animals to hospitals. A number of times childbirth took place on the way to health clinics. Now, we can call a driver and they comfortably arrive on our doorsteps to transfer us to the desired location. Health clinic ambulances are [also now] able to function with ease.”

“Security, mutual respect, health clinics, and educational facilities” are deeply important to Nooruddin, who dreams of a future where the government “equally respects both men and women [by having] schools open for boys and girls, facilitating human rights for all Afghan citizens.”

“My wish for my family is the same for all Afghan citizens: to have food to eat, regular jobs, electricity, a health clinic, potable water, and a transit road.”

For more information on how to support Cash-for-Work projects in Afghanistan, visit upliftafghanistan.org/give.