Afghan doctors proud of helping Indonesia

Afghan doctors proud of helping Indonesia

Michaela Cancela-Kieffer, Agence France-Presse, Kabul

They pose for a picture, proud of the card pinned on their jacket
which identifies them as part of Afghanistan's "medical
assessment team": despite its own misery, the war-torn country is
sending its own doctors to Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province.

After 23 years of conflicts, Afghanistan remains one of the
world's poorest nations, with a shattered health system.

The average life expectancy of Afghans is less than 43 years,
whereas Indonesians can expect to live up to 66 years. Child
mortality is also among the worst on earth and five times higher
than Indonesia's.

"We lack trained personnel. We need to rehabilitate our
hospitals and drugs are too expensive," says Kabul military
hospital's general manager, Lt. Gen. Abdul Qassel Ahmadi.

But despite the obstacles, Kabul is sending to Indonesia a
medical team of 20 which includes 12 doctors, nurses and
emergency specialists.

They left the Afghan capital on Tuesday for Aceh, which bore
the brunt of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunamis, and has also
been the scene of a three-decade conflict between government
forces and separatist rebels.

"The people of Afghanistan... are eager to provide support
despite (Afghanistan's) own misery," said former health minister
Sohaila Seddiq, who is heading the delegation, prior to the
team's departure.

"It is a moment of pride for Afghanistan. It shows that we are
part of the international community," added Gen. Mohammad Azimi,
spokesman for the defense ministry at a ceremony to mark the
team's formation.

Organizing the expedition was no piece of cake though.

Ariana, the national airline, only has seven planes, so it had
to rent a DC-10 from a charter company in the United Arab
Emirates.

"The plane was scheduled to leave today but it has not arrived
in Kabul yet because of a financial dispute with its owner," an
Ariana operator told AFP on Monday while arranging the last
details of the trip in the dusty operations room of the Kabul
airport, where the only visible modern technology was a radio.

Afghan doctors are nevertheless convinced that despite their
limited means they can be of help in Indonesia.

"I am a infectious diseases specialist," said 35-year-old
military doctor Zabiullah Azizi, after being warmly greeted by
officials gathered at the hospital.

"Our community is very poor and we have many health problems,
especially infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera,
hepatitis, air and water-born diseases: the kind of things that
might appear in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia now," he said.

The team will stay in Indonesia for 15 to 20 days and survey
local needs in order to offer the appropriate help in a further
trip.

It will also bring 30 tons of food, blankets and medical
supplies such as antibiotics, analgesics and vitamins. For the
food, Afghans decided to send what they could: raisins and nuts.

"We are giving 10 tons of dried food because it is an Afghan
product and otherwise we would have had to take food from
overseas," said Gen. Mohammad Azimi.

The expedition would also be a good way "to acquire
experience" of a disaster situation for the doctors, especially
since Afghanistan is at risk in terms of earthquakes, said Abdul
Qassel Ahmadi.

It will definitely be an adventure for Abdul Wali Ashrat
Ahmadzai, another military doctor in the team. Born in this
mountainous country, he has only seen the sea on television.

"I am very scared of the water," he confesses, before leaving
the hospital with his luggage.