19 February 2025, Kabul, Afghanistan – The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the generous contribution of US$ 500 000 from the Government of Japan to strengthen essential health care services for vulnerable populations, particularly women and children, during Afgfhanistan's ongoing humanitarian crisis. Afghanistan continues to grapple with...

Patients in the outpatient chemotherapy ward undergoing chemotherapy. Photo credit: WHO 11 February 2025, Kabul, Afghanistan – In the remote mountains of Afghanistan, where the air is thin and the roads treacherous, a silent battle is being fought against an invisible enemy – cancer. For many people living in outreach areas, the journey to the...

21 January 2025, Kabul, Afghanistan – In the rugged beauty of Ghor province, western Afghanistan, lies a story of hope and transformation. For 24-year-old Gul Chehra, who lives in a remote village in Shahrak district, motherhood once meant fear and uncertainty. The isolation of her village, tucked amid snow-capped mountains and accessible only by a...

Assistant Secretary-General for Support Operations Lisa M Buttenheim is welcomed by children presenting flowers on her arrival at the Women and Children Drug Treatment Centre in Kabul, 7 December 2024. Photo: WHO Afghanistan 22 December 2024, Kabul, Afghanistan – Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Afghanistan Rosa...

20 November 2024, Kabul, Afghanistan – Since the introduction of the basic emergency care (BEC) course in Afghanistan in December 2021, WHO has provided 18 rounds of BEC training to a total of 800 first contact health workers, including 333 women, who care for patients with acute illness or injury. By adopting a systematic approach to the initial...

20 November 2024, Kabul, Afghanistan – In response to gaps in standardized trauma management in western Afghanistan, the World Health Organization (WHO) trained 48 first contact health care workers, half of them women, in basic emergency care (BEC) in Herat province. Since January 2024, WHO has trained 339 health workers in BEC, 154 of them...

18 September 2024 — WHO Afghanistan, in partnership with the European Union (EU), took part in the 26th World Congress of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM). The Congress was held in Istanbul, Türkiye between 5–8 September 2024. Under the theme Building Bridges: Addiction and Recovery, it provided a platform for WHO...

23 July 2024, Kabul, Afghanistan – Substance use and substance use disorders remain a significant public health burden in Afghanistan, devastating families and communities across the country. Substance use claims hundreds of lives each year, with substance dependence among women on the rise. Since 2023, WHO has played an important role in...

17 July 2024, Kabul, Afghanistan – A new initiative to reintegrate vulnerable women with substance use disorders and their children into the community has been launched in Afghanistan. Women will be supported through a comprehensive package of protection services, substance use disorder treatment and mental health services. Afghanistan has had a...

7 July 2024 – My name is Lalgul, and I am the father of Ghafar. We live in south-eastern Afghanistan. I was away from home when my son got sick. I returned and found Ghafur paralysed. He was one and a half years old. It started with a high fever, then his right leg became paralysed. My wife and I took him to the district hospital, and he...