Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan is now ranked second worst in the world when it comes to maternal mortality. And just a few years ago in 2006, Badakhshan had the worst ever recorded incidence of maternal mortality ever recorded in history. And yet there are many NGOs working here.
John Tomaro is the director of the health programs for the Aga Khan Foundation, which is very active in Badakhshan.
He says the statistics still are so grim there because, “it takes a long time to really have a change in the maternal mortality ratio. There are a couple of techniques that will indicate whether or not we’re on the right course — that is that the maternal mortality ratio is going down. But it takes a significant amount of time to measure it. We do think, however, that we’ve begun to put in place some of the measures that will have an effect in reducing the ratio.”
One of the measures Tomaro’s group is working on is a community midwife school that recruits young women from the villages in Badakhshan.
Ismailimail 