We work shoulder to shoulder with International Organisations, NGOs, governments and most importantly local communities to implement a timely vaccination program against polio, which is harmonically aligned with the public health service provision and national health objectives.
Our partners include WHO, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health.
Nurturing joint initiatives while overcoming bureaucratic and geographical obstacles is crucial to implement a realistic and sustainable healthcare plan with a far-reaching impact.
Our strength lies in providing healthcare to remote communities across rural Afghanistan. Alongside this we work collaboratively with local women and men to monitor and evaluate why the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) fails to reach so many every year.
Our Community and Ethos
Humanity and Trust
Humanity is uppermost amongst our expanding community of mobile immunization teams, volunteers and local health ambassadors.
Educating rural communities and changing anti-vaccination attitudes is a process that is built upon trust and respect. We are flexible and agile, listening closely to our beneficiaries and see their daily struggles through their eyes. This is the ethos upon which we build communication bridges to educate women and men about the importance of immunization and healthcare.
Life in rural Afghanistan is extremely challenging; plagued by poverty and the lack of basic infrastructure and education. At the same time, it is disrupted by armed conflict and a feeling of constant insecurity about the future.
Inclusion of Women
Healthcare and education are still inaccessible for many women and young girls in rural Afghanistan.
The Maywand Foundation has made it a priority to include women as much as possible and to prevent human rights violations. We empower women to be financially independent and contribute to their communities as trusted health ambassadors and educators. Our volunteers lead women-led support groups and networks that encourage dialogue and male accountability. We believe that Afghan women have a voice that should not be silenced or suppressed.
Healing the trauma of a war that once wiped out all the potential of a culturally rich and diverse country cannot materialize without the invaluable contribution, resilience and innate wisdom of women.
Community Development Projects: Helping people to take charge of their lives
Community development is key to close the abyssal gap between urban and rural Afghanistan. Through our community development projects, we empower people in villages to study, work, and ultimately lead their own development creating thriving, self-governing communities.
Our projects aim to build trusting and accountable relationships with the state actors that allow local councils freedom to define their community development priorities.
Our initiatives are ongoing and ever-expanding. We implement core infrastructure schemes in villages to improve sanitation, create jobs, promote renewable energy solutions, as well as bring education to children who live in geographically remote areas.
We provide integrated health services effectively across Afghanistan’s 34 provinces – our strength lies in being able to access and prioritize insecure, and hard to reach villages.
Where We Are
Our immediate operations target nearly 500,000 women and men and children in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Nangarhar, Faryab, Herat, Nuristan and Uruzgan.
428,218
Targeted Healthcare Beneficiaries
102,758
Children
34
Afghan Provinces