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Afghans Need Healing "Body And Soul": Nurse at Pakistani Conference
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Afghan nurse listened hard as international experts speaking here at a three-day conference rattled on about the tough task ahead of rebuilding her country. But her agenda wasn't dollars and cents, it was "bodies and souls."
"My country has been a forgotten land for such a long time, my people have been tortured for so many years," said the nurse, who would give her name only as Aziade, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "There is all this talk about reconstructing the country, but to achieve that people will need peace and physical and moral strength."
Aziade was attending the three-day conference on "Preparing for Afghanistan's Reconstruction" which opened here Tuesday, organized jointly by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
At the conference, World Bank Vice President for the South Asian Region, Meiko Nishimizu, told over 200 participants that Afghanistan's reconstruction would require an imminent economic, social and political transformation, according to the English-language Pakistani daily
Dawn.
Yoshihrio Lwasaki, a representative for ADB, said his bank was prepared to provide whatever financial support was necessary for Afghanistan's rehabilitation and reconstruction,
Dawn said.
"We are meeting here at a time of great anxiety," Lwasaki was quoted by the paper as saying, adding that the war torn country was in urgent need the rehabilitation of its agriculture, education and health systems.
Another speaker, Karl Fischer of the U.N. Special Mission in Afghanistan, said that Kabul's new government must ward against terrorism and drugs, and maintain legitimacy within and outside of Afghanistan,
Dawn reported.
Fischer added that the peace talks, which opened promisingly yesterday in Bonn, should allow another group of women representation in the peace process than those already present.
But while the economics of Afghanistan's future were being debated here and the politics hashed out in the German conference, some were urging all parties not to forget the human factors.
"Even if we have peace again, we should not act with haste," Aziade said. "To rebuild my country, the bodies and souls of my people will need to be mended first."
For another participant, Abdul Salam Rahimy, "reconstruction of the health sector is urgent."
"We see terrible things when we go around rural areas, people die simply because of a lack of health care and facilities," said Rahimy, an official of Civil Humanitarian Assistance (CHA), a non-governmental organization operating mainly in western and southern Afghanistan.
Mohamed Jama, regional coordinator of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the emphasis when it comes to reconstruction should be on the human element.
"One of the most important things in reconstruction is to save and improve lives," he said.
One of the priorities is to improve conditions for pregnant women, he added. Due to poor conditions and lack of trained staff, an average of 45 women die each day of pregnancy-related complications.
This mortality rate - some 16,000 pregnant women each year - is second only to that of Sierra Leone in West Africa.
More than 90% of births take place at home, the woman being assisted by a relation or a neighbor. The life expectancy of women is a mere 45 years.
"Traditionally, utilization of health care by women was low in Afghanistan, especially in rural areas," said Aziade. "Social organization works against them and the Talibans have made it worse."
Exacerbating the problem, their families' refusal to seek out medical help often brings about painful deaths for women.
"People abide by the principle that Allah rules on life and death," she said.
Once born, the baby is accorded no privileges. One quarter of Afghan babies die before their fifth birthday, around 10% suffer severe malnutrition and 50% chronic malnutrition, leaving them vulnerable to epidemics.
Prevention of epidemics is equally urgent, says WHO, pointing to the fact that tuberculosis kills 12,000 to 13,000 Afghans each year, 70% of them women.
Many suffer from physical wounds sustained during bitter warfare that has ravaged the country for the past 20 years.
Even more - some two million people - suffer mental problems, while the majority of the 25 million population bear psychological scars of the trauma to which they have been subjected.
"Afghans must come back from the realm of shadows to become human beings again," said Aziade. "It will take years, perhaps decades."
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