About La Chaîne de l’Espoir
La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been working in Afghanistan since the early 2000s. In 2005, it built the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) in Kabul, a non-profit pediatric hospital, to provide high quality medical and surgical care for young patients. Since 2006, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has been responsible for the overall management of the FMIC, with La Chaîne de l’Espoir providing medical support and access to the most vulnerable populations.
In 2016, the hospital expanded with the opening of gynecology, obstetrics and neonatology services, becoming the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC). Services for adults have also been developed in recent years.
The goal of La Chaîne de l’Espoir is to increase access to healthcare for the most vulnerable Afghans. To do so, La Chaîne de l’Espoir:
- Trains and supports the medical, paramedical and technical teams through short- and long-term volunteer missions.
- Provides free surgical treatment at FMIC and social care for the most vulnerable children and women coming from all the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, through the “Women and Children’s House” (WCH) project.
Given the evolution of the situation in the country, marked by a possible collapse of public services (including in the health sector), in 2022, La Chaîne de l’Espoir plans to continue its support for the most vulnerable Afghan children and women and will increase the assistance provided to internally displaced people living in camps in Kabul.