IMC Female Afghan Doctor Heads Up Successful Measles Campaign

February, 2002 —Dr. Rokhshana, IMC physician and female Afghan national, received the well-deserved acknowledgement of her peers and the entire NGO community during a meeting at Indira Ghandi Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan in January. She was selected from among all NGO representatives, the Ministry of Public Health, and WHO to present the statistics of a successful measles campaign led by IMC in which she had played a key role. This campaign was the first since the installation of the new Afghan government.

IMC staff led 22 teams during the fifteen-day campaign, reaching 95% of the children of Kabul between the ages of 6 months and 12 years, exceeding its target. Countless other IMC-trained vaccinators participated. According to WHO, nearly half of all deaths due to vaccine-preventable diseases in Afghanistan are attributed to measles and entirely avoidable with one simple injection. 850,000 children were identified to receive this potentially life-saving vaccination.

IMC prepared EPI trainers in a one-day workshop in which Dr. Rokhshana served as a Master Trainer. She also conducted three days of training at Khrkhana Hospital, in central Kabul city, for 170 vaccination team members. These sessions focused not only on the importance of proper injection procedures, but also on the vaccinator's role as health educator and social mobilizer.

Dr. Rokhshana expressed her honor, pride, and hope for the future of Afghanistan because she was able to participate with the Ministry of Public Health, which had not existed for more than 20 years. During and after the campaign, she was honored by her fellow Afghans and by the NGO community for her work with IMC. She was also the first woman physician to be featured on local television in five years when she was featured in a televised question and answer session about the vaccination campaign. Dr. Rokhshana felt extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to encourage and motivate other Afghan doctors and would-be doctors to persevere.