Afghanistan Projects

Health Care Partnerships


We believe in partnering with other organizations to provide stronger impact in alleviating poverty and improving health. Two recent examples of health care partnerships:

Kameri Village Medical Clinic
In 2010 Global Partners partnered with an Afghan NGO to enhance and support the medical services in a village of over 14,000 people outside of Kabul. Prior to this project there was one part time doctor whose salary was only twenty dollars a month. There were no other paid staff working at the clinic and the village lacked adequate health care. Today the salaries of six staff are covered and the small clinic is seeing an average of thirty patients a day. There is now a stocked pharmacy. The staff is conducting health education classes for the village in the schools and the clinic. GP has also brought two teams of doctors from the USA to conduct training for the staff and support the work of the clinic. A container of medical equipment will be delivered to the clinic from the US in 2011 to complete the project. Most notable is the reduction of infant mortality in this village; it has dropped from 55% to 15% for children under the age of five years.


Cure Hospital
Global Partners Afghanistan has an ongoing project in the northern town of Shebherghan where help is given to needy persons to be treated at Cure Hospital in Kabul. Each person is provided with round trip bus fare, the cost of lodging in Kabul, and taxi fare to the hospital. Among the patients assisted this past year, eight people had surgery for cleft lip/palate and one person had treatment for burn scars.

Facts About Afghanistan

  • Area: 652,230 sq. km.
  • Borders: China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
  • Arable Land: 12.13%
  • Natural Hazards: Earthquakes, droughts, flooding
  • Population: 29,835,392 (July 2011 est.)
  • Urban Population: 23% of total population (2010)
  • Infant Mortality Rate: 149.2 deaths / 1,000 live births (#2 in world)
  • Life Expectancy at Birth: 45.02 years
  • Literacy (age 15+ can read and write): 28.1% (Male: 43.1%; Female: 12.6%)
  • GDP - per capita (PPP): $900 USD (2010 est.)

More About Afghanistan:

The population of Afghanistan is about thirty million. Pashtuns are the predominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, comprising forty-two percent of the population. Other ethnic groups include the Tajiks (twenty-seven percent), Hazaras (nine percent), Uzbeks (nine percent) and other minority groups such as the Aimak, Turkmen and Baluch. Dari is the official language of the government. However, many other languages are spoken in Afghanistan, including Pashtu, Hazaragi, Uzbek, and Turkmen. Religiously, Afghanistan is over ninety-nine percent Muslim, with an estimated eighty percent Sunni Muslims and an estimated nineteen percent Shiite Muslims.

Read a brief history of Afghanistan

Today, Global Partners works alongside the United Nations and many other international NGOs to provide essential development and support. Afghanistan's infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, and water sanitation, is in poor condition. Medical care is lacking, especially in rural areas. This results in a national life expectancy of only forty-five years, the second highest infant mortality rate in the world, and the highest rate of maternal mortality. Furthermore, the educational system is struggling to recover after decades of war; less than thirty percent of men are literate and only about thirteen percent of women. Cultivation of poppies also remains a significant concern, as Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium. Although there has been a great deal of reconstruction in the past ten years, much, much more is needed in order to alleviate poverty, provide adequate health care, create economic opportunities, and educate the next generation.