KABUL and received their degrees in eastern Laghman province, the Swedish International Corporation Agency (SIDA) said on Sunday.
The SIDA-funded programme, introduced in 2011, is similar to the community midwifery-training programme and is aimed to address Afghanistan’s lack of nurses particularly in rural areas.
A joint venture of SCA and Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), the program’s goal is to graduate female health workers who are primary and community health-oriented rather than disease‐oriented. Upon graduation, the nurses will be employed health facilities near them, a SIDA statement said.
One of the graduates, Suraya Jan from Alingar district, said she decided to enter the nursing education program because there was no female health worker in her district.
“Now I am a trained and skilled nurse. I can provide healthcare services that female in my area deserve,” Suraya said.
Naheed Hamdard, another graduate, happy for her graduation, said her father was a doctor and her elder sister a medical student. “I had a dream to serve my community. Today my dream comes true,” she added.
She said there was only one midwife in her home district Alishang. “Every day female patients are visiting the health clinic but every one of them can’t get treatment.”
Engineer Mohammad Gul, father of a newly graduated nurse, also addressed the ceremony, saying that “Today I am happy and proud of my daughter. She turned a role model for other females in the province.”
The graduated nurses received degrees during the graduation ceremony, which was attended by Haji Jamiatullah Hamidy, deputy provincial governor, Dr. Abdul Latif Qayumi, director of public health department, Dr. Humayun Safi, Head of the SCA Health Programme, Terje Magnusson Watterdal, Country Director of NAC and others.
Meanwhile, another 25 females have enrolled in a SCA midwifery education funded by SIDA through SCA in Laghman. The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee is implementing the project as a joint venture with SCA.
SCA is also running the midwifery education program in Maidan Wardak and Samangan provinces.
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