HumaniTerra has created the Herat Burn Centre, rebuilt and refurbished the province hospital’s operating theatre; organized a self-immolation prevention campaign aimed at young afghan women and sent training and surgical missions.
CREATION OF A PILOT BURN CENTRE IN HERAT, AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY MISSIONS
Present in Afghanistan since 2002, HumaniTerra organizes every year reconstructive surgical missions for burn victims, in Herat’s General Hospital (Iranian border). In 2007, HumaniTerra decided to open a Pilot Burn Centre in Herat to fight the recurring phenomenon of very young women self-immolating and the extremely rough and rudimentary care offered.
Nowadays, the Herat Burn Centre, which was inaugurated in 2007, welcomes 700 patients annually, all-the-while following international standards: the centre is a place of preventive medicine, care and post-traumatic after-care, thanks to the combined efforts of the different partners all working for the project, under HumaniTerra and the Afghan Health Ministry’ supervision. In 2009 after a hospital reform, the care unit has become a national training centre. An expatriate women working for HumaniTerra is in the field 8 months of the year, HumaniTerra will also keep on sending four reconstructive surgery missions a year to help the medical staff.
Partners: EuropeAid, Veolia Environnement Foundation (sterilisation).
HERAT PROVINCE SELF-IMMOLATION PREVENTION CAMPAIGN (2008-2011)
HumaniTerra has led since 2008 a self-immolation prevention campaign for young girls. An awareness documentary film, conceived and produced by Afghan women, is shown in villages and followed by a debate. The awareness campaign is produced by a partner association of Afghan women, Voice Of Women (WOW), under HumaniTerra’s Herat delegation’s supervision. In parallel a media campaign covering the self-immolation phenomenon is broadcast on the regional television and radio. A second local partner, Women Life Care, is leading a sociological investigation around the city of Herat’s families and aims to detect at risk families and guide them to the appropriate centres.
The editor Grasset published a book “S’immoler à 20 ans” by Dorothée Olieric, reporter for France 2, and Marie-José Brunel, nurse and member of HumaniTerra. The profits of this book have been given to HumaniTerra.
Partners: Voice of Women (VWO), Women Life Care Organisation (WLC), French Development Agency, UNICEF, ed. Grasset, PPR Foundation.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SURGICAL OFFER AND THE SURGICAL CARE PROVIDED BY HERAT’S REGIONAL HOSPITAL: HERAT OPERATING THEATRE PROJECT (HOT)
After years of work building reconstructive and orthopaedic surgery capacity, HumaniTerra has undertaken, in collaboration with the Italian and Japanese cooperations in Afghanistan, an ambitious project of restructuration of the Herat Regional Hospital’ operating blocs.
The surgical capacity building allowed the first complete prosthetic hip replacement by an afghan team in 2007 with the help of a HumaniTerra team. In 2008, 3 prosthetics were fitted by Afghan surgeons. Since, over 70 prosthetics have been fitted by the newly trained surgical team.
Since 2009, HumaniTerra has installed a vast, modern and efficient operating theatre in Herat’s general hospital: the Herat Operating Theatre Project (HOT).
Partners: Italian and Japanese Cooperations