Two weeks before I left Afghanistan, I was confronted with a true tragedy that could have been prevented. During a visit to the same burn unit in Kabul I had photographed female victims of self-immolation a year earlier, I met a burn patient named Lahor Bibi. Lahor had been in the burn unit for 2 months fighting a life and death battle with septicaemia - blood poisoning by drug resistant bacteria. Lahor needed drugs that cost more than her husband or family could afford: $500 for two weeks...
more »Two weeks before I left Afghanistan, I was confronted with a true tragedy that could have been prevented. During a visit to the same burn unit in Kabul I had photographed female victims of self-immolation a year earlier, I met a burn patient named Lahor Bibi. Lahor had been in the burn unit for 2 months fighting a life and death battle with septicaemia - blood poisoning by drug resistant bacteria. Lahor needed drugs that cost more than her husband or family could afford: $500 for two weeks of treatment. After spending two days searching for the drugs, I learned on the third day that Lahor had died the night before. Outraged by the reality that women were dying because they were too poor to buy medicine, I decided to start a fund by donating $750 to Hagar International, an NGO working in Afghanistan to help improve the lives of abused women and children. The Lahor Bibi Fund for Afghan Women is an emergency drug fund that will purchase rare, expensive medicine for women who desperately need them. If you would like to make a contribution to this fund, please copy and paste the following link into your browser:
http://hagarusa.org/emergency-medical-fund-for-afghan-women/
Finally, this gallery is dedicated to all Afghan women who are bravely fighting for a better future. It is also dedicated to all those people who are standing shoulder to shoulder with them in what is perhaps the most important fight - the fight for human rights, justice, and equality for all.
Sincerely,
David
Just a few facts....
* Every 30 minutes, an Afghan woman dies during childbirth;
* 87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate;
* 30 percent of girls have access to education in Afghanistan;
* 1 in every 3 Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence;
* 44 years is the average life expectancy rate for women in Afghanistan;
* 70 to 80 percent of women face forced marriages in Afghanistan.
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