Save the Children building a better future for Afghan children

In Afghanistan's Uruzgan Province an innovative partnership between the Australian Government and Save the Children aims to improve health and education for 300,000 people.

Heralded as one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by an Australian aid agency, "The Children of Uruzgan" project is a four-year multi-million dollar program that will bring basic health and education to all districts of the Afghanistan province - one of the nation's poorest, where health indicators are among the worst in the world and literacy rates for women is less than one per cent.

Foreign Minister The Hon Kevin Rudd MP announcing the program early in December 2011 said, "In one of the world's most challenging conflict settings, the Children of Uruzgan project will help build a healthy and educated future for Afghan families, particularly children and women."

The multi-million dollar project is managed by Save the Children's Tom White, an aid worker, from Sydney.

Over the next few years Tom and his team of mainly Afghan staff will, among other things, build 20 new schools and train dozens of girls to become school teachers. They will also establish five new health centres, recruit and train 50 midwives as well as 215 health workers.

"The work we do here in Uruzgan over the next four years is destined to improve the health and education of hundreds of thousands of Afghan people but especially women and children. It is work all Australians can be proud of."

Uruzgan Health and Education Program

This project is Save the Children Australia's largest project to date. With an existing operational presence in Uruzgan, Save the Children will deliver a four year program.

The overall program will focus on:

• Addressing issues of skills shortages in the areas of healthcare and education

• Supporting critical infrastructure

• Strengthening the capacity of the provincial government to deliver basic services in line with core needs

Save the Children will apply particular emphasis to the role of girls and women. Given the significance of female health and education to the overall development of a community, the exclusion of women from such services perpetuates an ongoing cycle of disadvantage and marginalisation.

The project aims not only to improve the quality of, and access to these services but to also, in consultation with communities, to shift perceptions about the role of women to include the ability to work in such areas.

Find out more about Save the Children's work in Afghanistan.