Sometimes you have to cross boundaries

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Humanitarian aid is not the main component that the Czechoslovakian Provincial Reconstruction Team provides in Logar province, however in certain situations one cannot stand by without taking immediate action. 

The epidemic of Hepatitis that has spread among Afghan students in Mohammad Agha district was a cause for concern and has become a priority for the PRT. So far, many children have been infected by this disease, which causes inflammation of the livers and further cirrhosis or cancer. This illness has also started to spread among the children’s families.

The Local Ministry of Health wasn’t able to manage the crisis and had asked the Czech PRT for assistance in purchasing the vaccines and administering the treatment.

“Humanitarian help has to go hand in hand with development,” said Jarmila Jelinkova, the project manager of the Czech PRT. “The development aid we conduct in the form of reconstruction of the province is focused on systematic steps, which will work well even in the future and will maintain long-term impact and sustainability. But in the situation when there were no donors capable of investing into a crisis situation we had to react quickly.”

The fragility and disruption of Afghan society by 30 years of unceasing war played a large role. Afghan people will trust their government more when the government provides assistance and protection. If the government was not able to provide the health care that was desperately needed, the trust would be gone.

In addition to helping the government and the people affected by the Hepatitis epidemic, the Czech PRT did not have much time and had to act fast in vaccinating the people in the villages of Surchabad and Njayiajabad; this is where the majority of the people were infected. 

“If we hadn’t decided to step in and invest in the vaccination, the epidemic would have kept on spreading and the cost of care of the sick people would have exceeded the cost of vaccination. Therefore we started selection procedure for the delivery of vaccines, needles and injections and found medics that vaccinated children in schools and their families,” Jelinkova added.