Female Treatment Team provides health education in Khakrez

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

01.06.2011

Courtesy Story

ISAF Joint Command

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan women completed their first series of a three-part block of instruction at the District Health Clinic in Khakrez District, Kandahar province and were tested Jan. 3.

Air Force Capt. Jennifer Buckingham, physician’s assistant and instructor, her assistant, Air Force Senior Airman Stephane Tripp, medical technician, and a coalition forces female interpreter make up a Female Treatment Team who, in support of the Ministry of Public Health, is working to educate females on health care in a Kandahar village.

The team, one of the first in the country, is working with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, through the MoPH, to create a sustainable infrastructure for women to provide healthcare for other women in the district.

The team works out of a room in the health clinic, which is run by a male Afghan doctor, Dr. Bashir, who works for the MoPH.

Directly adjacent to the clinic is the unfinished foundation of a new women’s health clinic.

“This will be the check-in area,” says Buckingham, who wears a traditional afghan gown and head covering, gesturing to an area with a low counter. “And down this hall,” she motions, “these could be used as birthing or exam rooms.”

The building’s foundation is about twice the size of the existing clinic next door, made sturdily out of bricks.

“Our primary goal with use of the Female Treatment Team is to build Afghan health capacity at the village level to improve long-term women’s health care,” said Maj. (Dr.) Gary Means, surgeon, Special Operations Task Force-South. “The primary mechanism for this is education. The Female Treatment Team is performing direct health education for women and promoting/supporting the GIRoA Ministry of Public Health Community Health Worker curriculum. When they leave this district, they will leave behind women with health education.”

Currently Buckingham’s team is training two separate classes of CHWs; conducting health care education classes three times a week. This is a conservative district and the women have obtained permission from their husbands to attend the training. They must leave their household work until later in the day when they return. Most bring their children with them to class.

“I’ve never felt more passionate about a job before in my life,” Buckingham said. She hopes another team will replace her team here when her deployment is over, or an Afghan woman in charge of women’s health care and education. Her top priority, she said, is to get an Afghan mid-wife in the area.

Finding candidates to be educated as Community Health Workers can be challenging.

Most of the area’s populace is illiterate, and almost all women have several children and have to run a household. They also need permission from their husbands.

Each female adult patient seen in the clinic is asked if she’d like to participate in medical education classes held each day after the clinic closes. Course offerings for midwife programs are also offered by the Female Treatment Team.

“When I came to Afghanistan, I had no idea I’d be working out here in a village training Afghan women in healthcare,” Buckingham said. “It’s been an incredible experience.”

She tells the story of being called upon to deliver a baby the first week the team arrived in the village. She and her team had been introduced around to neighboring villages by the District Governor, who was very supportive of their presence.

“Villagers came to the camp gate one night asking for ‘Doctor Jen’ to deliver the baby,” Buckingham said. “I’d only delivered a baby in training in a modern hospital, surrounded by many professional staff members telling me what to do. Here, I didn’t have an interpreter, and I only had some basic medical supplies and instruments in a very rustic setting with little light and my medical technician.”

“I asked for a head lamp, got set-up and with the help of Tripp and the mother, they birthed a healthy baby,” Buckingham said.

Two babies have been successfully delivered in this same clinic by Buckingham and the team.

One of every ten women die in childbirth, which most commonly takes place in the home, far from a medical facility if one exists in the area. Reducing these statistics is the goal of the Ministry of Public Health, while the Coalition FTT aim to assist with this mission through education and training.

“One of the most rewarding experiences for me was the day I began teaching, and seven women showed up to attend the instruction,” Buckingham said. “I had been so nervous that no one would show up. When they walked through the door that day, I was so relieved and happy,” she said.

Since then, each day at the clinic brings something new. Her Afghan students have now taken on training the newer classes of women, which Buckingham finds immensely rewarding to see happening.

“This is how it is supposed to work, Afghan women training one another and passing on their knowledge.

• Date Taken: 01.06.2011
• Date Posted: 01.06.2011 21:16
• Story ID: 63157
• Location: KABUL, AF