Our friend and colleague of Anna Rolli Agency Radical between Christmas and New Year Bala Mourghab visited the border with Turkmenistan, one of the hottest places of RCW Afghan territory under the control of the Italian contingent and we kindly sent this text and related photos.
TALK ABOUT HEALTH CONDITIONS AFTER THIRTY YEARS WAR
by Anna Rolli
At border with Turkmenistan in the northwest of Afghanistan, Bala Murghab in the valley, a river and bright blue-green glazed into the soil as dry and dusty. The river called Murghab heads north and is perennial, the latter feature of great importance in an extremely arid country. Not far from its shores rise the villages of ethnic Pashtuns, with minorities of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmen. Smaller than a few hundred people while the largest Bala Murghab counts 10,000 inhabitants and a bazaar in the center and a small hospital with two Afghan doctors working on a catchment area of \u200b\u200babout 44,000 inhabitants. The hospital has no operating room, one of the doctors speak English, enjoys a reputation for being very good and takes care of the male ward, the other only speaks the local dialect, it is not known with certainty whether a doctor or a sort of curator in charge of women's wing. Another hospital operates more in the south, two days travel by bus in the town of Qala-I-Nau, where is even the nearest bank.
One morning, a military convoy, I went to visit the hospital Bala Murghab and welcomed us at the height of surprise, the doctor in a white coat with whom I exchanged the first bars in English is placed in the hall where the male ward. Now, a little 'excited, I was invited to move in the female ward. I knew that my presence there, among many bearded men, already in itself, was a sacrilege, just for fun, I got beat around the bush. "But I'm not a patient, 'I said," then we can talk here. " The doctor insisted, and looked around with a desperate thugs everywhere and frowns in turbans and dark in front of a wild west, not only unveiled but the supreme horror, in flak jacket and helmet, with the following three young soldiers armed with submachine gun and an armored vehicle waiting outside. It was so obvious that its total loss taken by human sympathy I followed meekly.
In the back of a courtyard crowded with figures veiled in blue and crying children, a cold room serves as a clinic. There we sat, next to the doctor "for women" in white cap and dark wooden rosary in his hands, and the doctor "for men" I spoke at length with his typical, monotonous eastern English. I spoke of malaria that reappears every year with the summer, typhoid, hepatitis and dysentery, endemic since there is a sewage system and water carrying bacteria and dust everywhere, the lack of trees for hundreds and hundreds of miles to where people are forced to use twigs for the fire and then arrives at the hospital with a terrible brucellosis disease transmitted by the uncooked meat enough, rheumatism and arthritis in a territory that in winter reaches 20 degrees below zero and it is not possible any form of heating. The doctor told me that while there are only two would need at least six doctors and twenty nurses finally asked me to thank with all my heart that our soldiers treat the sick and sometimes with the 'plane had delivered the most serious in distant hospitals.
Near the village of Bala Murghab, military peacekeepers, military nell'avamposto allocated the same name, dealing with health care according to a plan told MEDCAP. Americans as well as make available their operating room provide drugs and equipment, the Italians send medical and para-medical staff in all the most needy at least once a month. For people in fact, especially in winter, with ice and snow, it is very difficult to get to the hospital. Without roads, just trails paths, arriving on foot from distant places tens of kilometers or km, and sometimes they do carrying the sick with a wheelbarrow.
soon returned to base I found out that a few months ago, the Italian health care workers in group * had requested, in writing, permission to take care of the sick and the Afghan commander, Colonel Andrea Rainbow, had given willingly by providing a tent for the surgery. The young and gentle medical officer, Lieutenant Trevisani said "We are a particular area and if we do not give us a hand who can give a hand? ". He also explained that the private doctors in Afghanistan are very picky and that there is a lot of corruption in public hospitals, where poor people can not get care in a public hospital is targeted Italians, however, in order to create a climate of collaboration with doctors at the hospital of Bala Murgham, it requires patients to go before they come and in the case of to our base with a diagnosis written in English. He also explained that only two years ago the situation here was much more difficult, but now you can establish good cooperation with the local population and improving day by day, so it tends to reduce and replace them with the MEDCAP 'training of Afghan health workers who show very willing but ill-prepared because doctors often are not groped for and then you must teach him as much as you can. Then he told me that the wounds become infected easily and cases of gangrene and amputations carried American hospital, and shoes, one of the most common requests, especially in winter, as well as to build water wells, and Turkoman women who are more free and come to ask for help while the Pashtuns do not hardly ever go out of house , and the humanity of many poor farmers who struggle to save their loved ones and mourn when doctors declare them out of danger.
While we were talking came a child of six or seven years, and a bearded dad. He was very poor and dirty clothes and huge lower lip because a small cut on his chin had been infected. Did not cry, did not complain while it disinfects and incerottavano just waved his hands in silence, in the end we watched with wide eyes, eager to receive liquorice and candy, as every child knows local, are awarded to small by our soldiers, then serious and he sat composed in front of the tent and began to unwrap and munch oblivious to the mouth in poor condition, and his father beside him and waited patiently while with eyes of fire, under the tattered turban, stared the scandalous familiarity with which men and Western women dare to be working together and then slaps on the back and handshakes and even entertaining to laugh and chat.
I spoke at length with Lieutenant Joseph Di Lillo, who with others has been used to Herat, the headquarters of the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team), where the Italians have worked night and day, well beyond the time of service, to dispose of the endless lines of patients presenting each morning. He told me that sometimes family members carry the sick to the doctor when it is too late to arrive on foot from distant places, or do not allow women to be examined by a doctor but they send a boy of the family to report symptoms and seek a remedy , so women arrive at the hospital when they are already dying. He told me of violence against women that was covered with bruises under the chador, but also of families carrying their loved ones for miles and miles every time you need a dressing. I finally spoke with a bunch of young women with children, devastated by pregnancies that come asking for birth control but our players are not allowed to distribute it in Afghanistan do not talk about family planning by the government.
In one of the poorest countries, with one of the highest rates of infant mortality and a life expectancy among the lowest in the world, we would like to understand why and what we are waiting. What is certain is that the Afghan government to present, to many observers the impression of not worrying enough of women, provided that in this devastated country in many ways is truly frightening.
* Medical Officer, Lt. Marino Trevisani Taranto, Lieutenant Joseph Di Lillo di Maddaloni, Caserta; Corporal chosen Ugo Scognamiglio in Naples, Corporal Maria Nunzia Florio Grazzanise, Caserta.
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