January 2001 Fact Finding Mission, Northern Afghanistan

In January, 2001, a fact finding team from Global Watch Group (GWG) visited the northern regions of Afghanistan in or to assess the health condition of internally displaced people (IDPs). Many Afghans—fleeing the war, the totalitarian rule of the Taliban, and years of drought—were forced to live in exile in this region. Near the northern villages of Khoja Bhawahuddin and Dosht-e-Qala, thousands of families were living in makeshift tent homes in camps without access to basic medical services. In the Panjshir Valley, many displaced persons lived in crudely built shelters with poor sanitation, far from medical facilities.

The existing regional government-supported village clinics lacked essential medicine and supplies. Where present, the few NGO-supported medical facilities were sparsely equipped and poorly attended. Many people were ill any dying of potentially curable acute respiratory disease and diarrheal illness. Other diseases, including malaria, TB, typhoid and measles, had been reported in the camps.

These findings led GWG to conclude that the most effective strategy to reduce mortality and morbidity among this vulnerable population is provision of a mobile health clinic in various regions to outreach the needy Afghan IDPs and refugees.