Islamic Relief is offering regular health screening to all children who are supported through our orphan sponsorship scheme, as well as their siblings and mothers.

The project, which is funded by Comic Relief, aims to root out treatable illnesses as early as possible, to enable children to continue their education uninterrupted. When largely treatable illnesses are left untreated and escalate, children in Afghanistan are often forced to skip or even abandon education entirely.

Watched by Afghanistan’s first female Olympian, more than 150 girls from high schools in the capital, Kabul, competed today in a track and field event held to select female athletes for the country’s female Athletics Team.

“From this running competition, only the 12 best runners will be selected,” said Jan Alam Hassani, the Secretary-General of Afghanistan’s National Olympics Committee (ANOC), which organized the selection event along with the Directorate of Physical Education at the Ministry of Education.

New treatment clinic promised for Zabul, but underlying causes run much deeper.

By Niaz Mohammad Ziarmal, Abdol Qayum Ajez - Afghanistan
ARR Issue 456, 22 May 13

Tall and black-bearded, Mohammad Hashem still has a youthful look that belies the trouble he is in.

When IWPR’s correspondent in the southern Afghan province of Zabul found him, he was sprawled in a heap of trash, barely able to open his eyes.

“Give me money or food; I’m hungry,” he said.

05/22/2013 15:38 GMT

Ghazni, Afghanistan, May 22, 2013 (AFP) - A teenage suicide bomber killed seven people in central Afghanistan on Wednesday when he targeted local fighters who battle against Taliban insurgents, officials said.

The attacker detonated himself in a market place in Ghazni province, two days after another bomber struck outside government buildings in the north of Afghanistan killing 14 people including a provincial politician.

22 May 2013 - From mountain glaciers to rural wetlands, Afghanistan is rich in biodiversity but these sources of water are coming under pressure and need to be protected, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) office in the South Asian nation, on the occasion of the International Day of Biological Diversity.

A bustling bazaar that straddles a key national highway in southern Afghanistan is made safer for the community that lives around it

19 MAY 2013 | ZABUL, AFGHANISTAN

This month, Islamic Relief has kick-started the second phase of work to develop quality education for poor and orphaned children in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Since Islamic Relief began its work with Khoog Khoor school for orphans in January 2012, the school has established itself as one of the top schools in the city. Khoog Khoor currently serves over 350 students – 50 of whom come from remote, conflict-affected areas and so live at the school.

By Pamela Constable,

KABUL — Amid the scattered but steadily mounting carnage of the Taliban’s annual spring offensive, including a suicide bombing Monday that killed a provincial council head, hopes of stirring life into peace talks with the Islamist insurgents seem to be dying here with each new suicide attack, kidnapping and roadside bombing.

Afghanistan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world and is second for under-five mortality. Poor and improper nutrition among women of reproductive age can lead to pregnancy-related complications, there is an acute shortage of health facilities and trained staff – particularly female staff – access to antenatal care and essential medicine is limited, and most of the population lacks access to basic health and sanitation services.