View of Jaghsai Health Clinic
Integrity Watch Afghanistan
Jaghsai Clinic in Jawzjan Province is a Basic Health Center (BHC) that provides health services to the residents of 13 villages. The clinic was facing the challenge of not having a doctor and this problem was causing serious health issues to the people. Jaghsai is not the only village in Afghanistan that faces such problems. What sets this village apart from many other parts of the country is the people’s intervention and Integrity Volunteer monitoring and hard work.
When Ahmad Jawad, an Integrity Volunteer heard about the problem, he acted quickly and mobilized the community and the neighborhood to visit the clinic and address the issue. Mr. Jawad stated, “While visiting the clinic we found out that there was no doctor, and instead of a medical doctor a nurse was providing initial health services”. He added, “At the initial stage, we tried to resolve the problem through open dialogue with the clinic officials, but unfortunately we couldn’t convince them to resolve the problem and hire a medical doctor.
The community and the volunteer didn’t give up. On March 2nd, 2021 they organized a meeting with the SAF, the organization that provides health services, and on March 18th, they met with the health supervisor of Jawzjan Province. Luckily, the continuous efforts and the joint community advocacy and monitoring paid off. The SAF organization responded positively and on March 24, hired a medical doctor for the Jaghsai Clinic.
Now the clinic provides health services to almost 250 visitors and patients in a single day and the people do not have to visit other clinics to get health services. Kabeer Bay, a community elder stated, “When the clinic didn’t have a doctor, we had to visit other health centers, which were far away from us. Now that we have our doctor, we don’t need to worry about having to visit a clinic somewhere else.”
