Save Afghan Women & Children with Health Care

Dear Friends, 

Matching funds are available for donations made to all Creating Hope International and Afghan Institute of Learning projects on Global Giving. 

TODAY ONLY 9am ET to midnight March 16th! Donate anytime within these hours, up to $1,000 per individual donor per organization.

Here are links to our projects on Global Giving: CHI projects and AIL projects.

All donations are final.  The match is pro-rated so we will know the percentage of match at the end of the day, but everyone gets some matching funds from a pot of $75,000.

Special Alert!!  Two of our projects are eligible for 2 different matching funds  TODAY! 

Donations to these two projects get a 50% match under the Safer World Fund AND a  match on this March 16^th Bonus Day!! ! Check the SWF leaderboard! SWF allows matching by unique donors up to $1,500 per donor per project with project max of $15,000 in matching. 

1073 Save Rural Afghan Women and Children with Healthcare

1155 Fast Tracking Education for Afghan Women and Girls 

AIL has started the year 2016 with a full roster of education classes in many subjects as diverse as, literacy, English, carpet weaving, computers and physics. In the month of January, there were 9,682 students (6,132 female) in classes at 42 Learning Centers (LCs) in Afghanistan and 1 LC in Pakistan.  The health program has provided 19,226           patients with treatment and given health education to 11,854 people. Here is a story:

“My name is Somayeah and my twin sister is Masomah. We live in a poor family and we are both interested in learning, but we always missed the chance to study because people were laughing at us. Fortunately AIL’s teachers promoted self-confidence and self-esteem in us with great advice. Now we are happy and no longer ashamed. Our minds changed since attending AIL’s literacy and sewing classes. We also found out about the dignity of women in the community and we are proud to be twins. We also made very good educational decisions about our future.” 

Your donation will help AIL continue its valuable work providing education and healthcare, emergency relief and legal aid to poor Afghans. 

Thank you.

Dear Friends,

2015 was a successful year for the AIL Health Program with healthcare provided to 228,353 patients and health education to 141,813 participants. AIL has always combined its health care treatment with lessons in health education. It is vital to create change in behavior and new habits regarding health and cleanliness to stop the cycle of ill health and repeat infections that strain family life.

In 2015, AIL provided health education on a vast range of health topics including, nutrition, child spacing, immunization, breast feeding, hygiene, medicine usage, specific diseases as well as birth and pregnancy care. Many poor Afghan lack even rudimentary knowledge about sanitation, transmission of infection and what to do to have a safe birth. AIL wants to create a knowledge base which will be passed on to other family members, so each visit or return visit by a family always involves reinforcement of health knowledge.

One of the participants at a reproductive health workshop said: “My cousin is pregnant and it is her first child. Till now she didn’t contact a doctor. When I learned about vaccines in this workshop I asked her if she had contact with a doctor and does she have any information about vaccines. She said:’ I didn’t contact any doctor and I didn’t do anything about vaccination.” Then I shared with her those things which I learned from this workshop and also I added that she must see a doctor once a month during pregnancy.”

 Thank you for your support.

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

We thank you for the support you have given in 2015. Your giving has changed lives in many Afghan communities.  There are only a few more days left in 2015 and donations of any amount are always welcome!

You may want to take advantage of this donation option - This project and one other are in the  Safer World Fund at Global Giving.

Safer World Fund is offering a 50% matching donation up to $1,500 per donor per project (until funds run out or the project gets the maximum match of $15,000.)

Just think! Your donation of $40 to help women with healthcare will be worth $60 AND your donation of $40 to Afghan education will be worth $60. The matching funds are limited time, so make your donation now!

Two eligible Projects:

1073 Save Rural Afghan Women and Children with Healthcare

1155 Fast Tracking Education for Afghan Women and Children

Good health makes all the difference in life. People need to be well in order to learn and work to their capacity. AIL has provided 207,254  patients with medical care and 129,475  have attended health education so far in 2015. 

2015 Newsletter attached including information about the Afghan Institute of Learning.

Thank you for your support!

• CHI_Newsletter_2015.pdf (PDF)
  

Latest News!!

Dr. Yacoobi was honored to receive the 2015 WISE Prize for Education. A prestigious award given to those who are tireless advocates for the right to education. “I know from my life that education gives power, status and opportunity. I see women who are smart, intelligent but did not have opportunity so I gave them that. It is education and not guns that can transform society and give us a peaceful tomorrow. “ Sakena

Dear Friends, 

It is Giving Tuesday and we wanted to let you know how to make your gift go further!

AIL has two projects in the 2015-16 Safer World Fund within Global Giving.

What does this mean?

Safer World Fund is offering a 50% matching donation up to $1,500 per donor per project (until funds run out or the project gets the maximum match of $15,000.)

Just think! Your donation of $40 to help women with healthcare will be worth $60 AND your donation of $40 to Afghan education will be worth $60. The matching funds are limited time, so make your donation now! 

Here are the two eligible Projects

1073 Save Rural Afghan Women and Children with Healthcare

1155 Fast Tracking Education for Afghan Women and Children

So far in 2015, AIL has provided healthcare to 170,306 patients and health education to 107,228 participants. Many of the patients are women of reproductive age and adolescent girls. It is very important to reach these women and girls early so they can learn about reproductive health and go into pregnancy and childbirth armed with the knowledge of what to expect and how to reduce their risk of injury or death.

In addition to the regular health education offerings in 2015, 526 women have elected to attend an intensive Reproductive Health or Expectant Mother Workshop. These workshops are effective in providing a thorough understanding of reproductive issues and this knowledge can then be acted upon to ensure healthy pregnancy and birth.

Here is Gulsha’s story, “I was very young when I got married and got pregnant. After my child was born, I did not know how to breast-feed him. My child died because of my lack of knowledge and attention to him when he was 2 months old. This was very upsetting to me as I was not able to take care of my child. I was a much better mother for my next child, even though I still wouldn’t know much about breastfeeding children. Now at this workshop I learned how and for how long to breast feed the child. This is very beneficial to women as they get necessary knowledge to take care of their children.”

Of the 130 pregnant women who attended Expectant Mother Workshops in 2015, 30 have given birth and all have chosen a safer clinic birth rather than the usual home birth.  AIL receives many requests from communities that want to have their own workshop which shows that the usefulness of the workshops have spread by word of mouth to other communities.

Thank you for your support.

Dear Friends,

We know we just wrote to you, but we hope you will forgive us for writing again so soon!

A great 100% match opportunity was just announced!

If you are not yet a recurring donor and sign up for recurring donations between September 21^st to 25^th then Global Giving will do a 100% match (one time of the amount donated) up to $200 per donor. It must be a minimum 4 month recurring donation.

So if you sign up to give $50 each month for 4 months. Your gift of $200 will be worth $250!!

But wait there is more! This project is part of the Safer World Fund so all donations are SWF matched to 50%! (while SWF money lasts)

So add another $100 to the total – Your gift of $200 could be worth $350!!!

Can you take this opportunity for a double match?  Click this link and choose the recurring donation option!

Health update

So far in 2015, AIL has provided healthcare to 129,000 patients and health education to 82,000 participants. An important part of AIL clinic care and education is aimed at women of reproductive age. There are workshops available on women’s health and pregnancy and childbirth. So far this year 386 women have attended workshops and are now better able to care for themselves, especially during the risky time of childbirth. The Expectant Mother Workshops have over the last 4 years had all the women choose to give birth at a medical facility,rather than the more traditional at home birth. This is much safer for mother and child and is why there have been no maternal deaths or infant deaths among these women. Afghanistan still has a maternal death rate of 4/1000 live births compared to for example, Canada which has a death rate of 0.11/1000 births. There is still a long way to go in making childbirth safe for Afghan women.

Thank you for your support.