The Taliban’s assumption of power in August 2021 brought many changes to the lives of the people of Afghanistan. For us, there was uncertainty about whether or how we would be able to continue our work to help cleft children in Afghanistan. We are therefore very happy to announce that one of our local surgeons from Mazar-e-Sharif has been able to resume her work after a forced break lasting several months. Despite the still difficult conditions, she provided surgery to nine children with clefts this May. This is still less care than we used to be able to provide to the cleft children of Afghanistan, but it is still precious childrens’ lives changed for the better, and we hope to provide care to many more in the coming months.
Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe has been providing care in Afghanistan since 2010. Some 2,500 children with cleft lip are born in Afghanistan every year. Under the previous government, those affected who could not afford the surgical procedure themselves had the opportunity to have it performed free of charge at one of our three project locations. Even in the pandemic year of 2021, our four local surgeons were able to perform 80 operations until the fall of the government in August – a great success during such a turbulent time for Afghanistan.
The situation in the country regarding availability of medical care for cleft children has never been easy and is unlikely to improve fundamentally anytime soon, despite our best efforts. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that our ability to help Afghan cleft children will improve further. Our surgeon in Masar-e-Scharif has taken a first and important step – we support her as much as we can and say “thank you” from the bottom of our hearts for her work and dedication!
