Motorola Foundation grants to Care and Cure in Afghanisation
Last updated 8/27/2010 12:58:03 PM
Motorola Foundation grants to Care and Cure in Afghanisation
The Motorola Foundation is supporting two organisations' efforts in education and healthcare programs in Afghanistan with funds totalling $200,000.
The grants awarded to CARE and CURE International will support community-based education for girls and a family medicine residency at the CURE International Hospital of Kabul, respectively.
CARE fights root causes of poverty in the world's poorest communities. The $100,000 grant will support an education project for girls which began in 2006 in the Khost province through community-managed schools.
The shortage of quality secondary schools in rural areas places a major constraint in the educational system in Afghanistan, according to Marcela Hahn, executive director of CARE's strategic partnerships and alliances.
"[The grant] will provide an opportunity for girls living in rural areas to advance beyond 6th grade, complete secondary school and gain valuable jobs in their local communities," she added.
Teaching kits, student-teaching internships and access to certificate programs from the Ministry of Education will help students in rural areas to secure jobs in teaching and health education after graduation.
Schoolteachers and administrators will be trained to self-manage the schools and employ community-based education. The support from the Ministry of Education and its local departments, will provide rural Afghan girls an opportunity to complete secondary schooling for the first time.
CURE International, a non-profit organisation that transforms the lives of children and their families in the developing world through medical and spiritual healing, has treated more than 1.1 million patients and performed more than 78,000 life-changing surgeries since 1988.
The $100,000 grant from the Motorola Foundation will support the three-year Family Medicine Residency Program, the first of its kind in the country to educate Afghan doctors in a variety of practices such as internal medicine, paediatrics, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and orthopaedics.
The residency program provides short- and long-term benefits to a healthcare system that is in dire need of doctors. According to the World Health Organization, there are only two doctors per 10,000 people in Afghanistan, compared to 26 doctors per 10,000 people in the United States.
Dr. Scott Harrison, CURE International's president and ceo said: "One of the greatest challenges facing the Afghan healthcare system is the lack of skilled doctors. Training represents a major part of the solution".
For the past eight years, CURE International has invested heavily in the training of Afghan medical professionals with initiatives similar to this residency.
Harrison added, "our residents will acquire the skills that will enable them to deliver life-saving medical care to thousands of Afghans".