With the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, Afghans are in desperate need of high-quality, culturally sensitive healthcare and health education programs that are accessible to women and children in the communities where they live. In response to these needs, AIL provides health education and services to over 260,000 Afghan women and children annually through its clinics, schools, and Women’s Learning Centers. General health services and maternal/child health services are offered at AIL's three clinic locations and through mobile clinics that serve women and children in remote areas. Health education and in-depth health workshops on hygiene, disease prevention, nutrition, reproductive health, and many other important topics are also offered.
AIL has also been training traditional birth attendants and nurse/health educators in intensive courses. Increasing the number of trained Afghan female health professionals is key to increasing Afghan women's access to quality health care.
On behalf of all the participants in a traditional birth attendant training workshop, one said, ”We are very much grateful to these Health Educators who came all the way to this camp to give us this important training... We learned the right method of delivering a child. Many women in our areas died because of the problems arising during delivery. We were not able to help them since we never knew the right method of delivery. But now we know our mistakes. Through conducting this workshop, you have saved the lives of many women who might have died during the pregnancy or might have lost the life of their child.”