Contact Admin. He has to drive a year-old pregnant woman to a health centre for an emergency antenatal checkup, about 20 km away from her village in the district of Shah Wali Kot. Nobody knows this better than Sayed Shah, whose pregnant wife just benefited from the new service.
If we find a local taxi, they charge us around AFN1, [approx. The lack of adequate and affordable transport has been increasingly acknowledged as a key obstacle for women to access health facilities with appropriate emergency obstetric and neonatal care.
This is especially true in remote rural areas of Afghanistan, where the terrain is challenging, distances between communities and health facilities are long, and transportation options are extremely limited. At no time is this more critical than for maternal and newborn emergencies, when patients have to reach a health centre providing specialized care in a short and often critical time frame.
In just six months, nearly 1, patients have benefited from transportation to health facilities, including more than 1, children under the age of five. The mini-ambulances also shuttled women for nearly deliveries, and more than ante- and postnatal care visits. As the number of ambulances in the region is set to grow, Agha Wali looks forward to continuing to drive patients. A huge threat to about one million adolescent girls in Afghanistan.
The scars of war. Zaranj [motorized mini-ambulance rickshaws] parked outside the Wayand Comprehensive Health Center in northern Kandahar, wait to transport patients back home. Provided by UNICEF with support from the government of Japan, the mini-ambulances shuttle women and children who do not have access to health facilities in their district, especially for maternal and newborn emergencies. Connecting the missing link The lack of adequate and affordable transport has been increasingly acknowledged as a key obstacle for women to access health facilities with appropriate emergency obstetric and neonatal care.
