Hospital Midwifery Education

NAC and the Nangarhar Institute of Health Sciences (IHS), have worked together for more than ten years to train and educate midwives in Afghanistan. IHS is located in Jalalabad, the capital city of Nangarhar province. During the first quarter of 2013 IHS graduated 24 new hospital midwives with the economical support of FOKUS, Norway.

Through the financial and technical support from FOKUS/NAC, IHS in Jalalabad has successfully graduated 357 midwives since 2002 which is more than 10 % of the total number of graduated midwives registered with the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan. After graduation these educated and trained women go back to their homes and communities to work in local hospitals and clinics where they can save lives through providing women and their babies with professional health care. During 2012, two batches of midwives were studying at the school. At the beginning of 2013, 24 midwives  graduated from the school while the remaining 25 will continue for another year.

Community Midwifery Education

NAC currently implements a Community Midwifery Education project in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak Province. The school is financially supported by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan and currently has one class with 25 students. Every student should pass 3 semesters and the duration of each term is 8 months. The students of both third and first class continued their theoretical and practical work on anatomic modules in school and on patients in two health facilities: Maidan Shahr Provincial Hospital (PH) and Ghazi Mohammad Jan Khan District Hospital (DH) during 2012.

Community Health Nursing Education

NAC is currently  launching a new project together with the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, a school for training community-health nurses in the provincial capital of Mehtarlam, Laghman. Around 24 girls have been selected to study at the school for two years in order to be employed in local health facilities all over the province. The school's future teachers and trainers have gone through the first phase of the training, and lessons have started at the school.

Supporting the Afghan Midwives Association

NAC has supported the Afghan Midwives Association (AMA) since 2010, through the financial support of FOKUS. AMA was established in 2005 and has around 2000 members from 32 provincial chapters. AMA is the technical lead for midwifery education, professional development, and policies that enable midwives in Afghanistan to practice the highest level of care. NAC's support to AMA aims to further strenghten AMA's organizational and technical capacity.