Concern Worldwide has opened eight new clinics serving over 80,000 people in remote areas of northeastern Afghanistan.
The project, funded by the Irish taxpayer through Irish Aid, will bring essential medical services to 50 communities across Takhar and Badakhshan provinces, where people have to travel long distances to access health care.
"Afghanistan has long struggled to provide basic healthcare, especially in remote areas where patients - including pregnant women - often walk for kilometres to reach even facilities with the most basic services. Recent funding cuts have further deepened this crisis, leading to the closure of hundreds of health centres across the country” said Shahzad Jamil, Concern Country Director in Afghanistan.
“In these challenging times, the Irish Aid funded healthcare programme is a critical lifesaving initiative to deliver vital services to some of Afghanistan’s most remote and marginalised communities, particularly women and children.”
The clinics provide access to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services, including safe birth delivery, antenatal and postnatal care, as well as critical malnutrition treatment for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and children under five years of age. Concern is also planning on introducing immunisation services to ensure access to life-saving vaccines for children.
Community members have warmly welcomed the opening of the health centres.
“This is a game-changer for us. We no longer have to endure long and costly journeys for basic medical care,” said one local resident.
Afghanistan has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates; one woman dies every two hours during pregnancy, in childbirth, or post-partum in Afghanistan from causes that are largely preventable with access to skilled care.
Women struggle to access healthcare because of limited availability, requiring travelling long distances to reach health facilities, especially for those living in remote, mountainous areas with poor roads such as Takhar and Badakhshan. Restrictions on travel for women also add to the challenges. Only 4.1 million out of 15 million Afghan women were able to access healthcare in 2024. Life expectancy for Afghan women has declined from 63.2 years in 2019 to 61 in 2021.
Malnutrition rates are at an all-time high. 3.5 million children under five years of age, and 1.1 million pregnant and new mothers are suffering or projected to suffer from acute malnutrition between June 2024 and May 2025.
Acute malnutrition is typically caused by not having enough to eat and is most common in children. It weakens the immune system, leaving children especially at high risk of dying from common childhood illnesses as well as from malnutrition itself.
Concern has been working in Afghanistan since 1998, when it first responded to a major earthquake there. In the 27 years since, its work has included emergency response to climate events and natural disasters; improving gender equality through economic empowerment, and food security focused on extremely poor rural populations.
For further information contact Eilis Staunton, Media Relations Officer, Concern Worldwide, at eilis.staunton@concern.net or +353 85 872 0720.