More than 450 community health clinics are bringing maternal and newborn care closer to women in remote areas, improving access to safer pregnancies and deliveries in Afghanistan.
“Zero maternal deaths in my village in seven years represents the success of my work,” said Laila Amini, a community midwife who runs the Arkalik family health house in northern Afghanistan.
Each family health house (FHH) serves around 1,500 to 4,000 people, often in communities at least 10 kilometres or a three-hour walk from the nearest basic health facility. An assessment across six provinces found that nearly three-quarters of surveyed women lived within one kilometre of a clinic and 82% could reach it on foot. Midwives provide reproductive, maternal, newborn and child healthcare, supported by a Safe Delivery App offering offline guidance for emergencies such as haemorrhage and newborn resuscitation. The app was downloaded 5,127 times in 2026 and has helped train and support around 1,200 midwives, with plans to train more than 3,000 additional midwives by 2027.
