Generous supporters like you allow UNFPA to bring lifesaving care to women, girls, mothers and their newborns — no matter how difficult it is to reach them.

UNFPA-sponsored health workers are committed to serving those in need in even the most hard-to-reach areas. For women and girls in remote areas across Afghanistan, the reproductive health advice and care they receive can save their lives.

But recent, steep funding cuts will affect 6.9 million women and children who depend on our services in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where 500 clinics will have to shut down, leaving less than half of our health clinics open.

The $102 million in cut funding would have fueled family health and mobile care and much-needed psychosocial support, but now, these services hang in the balance.

You can help fill the gap in crucial funding and bring urgent, lifesaving care to women and girls who need it most by becoming a monthly donor. Please, if you can, begin a monthly gift to deliver this care over the long-term.

For 32-year-old Zahera in Kabul, Afghanistan, childbirth has always been a cause of fear. Already a mother of three, her memories of previous deliveries — one at home and two in hospitals — were clouded by anxiety and pain. With each pregnancy, the emotional toll grew heavier.

Gifts from supporters like you allowed UNFPA to be there for Zahera and mothers like her in remote regions of Afghanistan. A UNFPA-supported Midwife-Led Maternity Care Center provided her with personalized, respectful, and compassionate support throughout childbirth and postnatal recovery.

Zahera’s delivery was different than any she had experienced. “This is the first time I felt strong, not afraid,” Zahera whispered, cradling her newborn. “I trusted myself because someone believed in me.”

For mothers like Zahera, UNFPA provides compassionate care that sparks a new sense of purpose. Beyond the numbers, the impact of UNFPA’s services is deeply personal.

“There is so much great work that UNFPA is doing, meeting the lifesaving reproductive health and psychosocial support needs of the returning refugees and people living in the most remote and hard-to-reach areas in Afghanistan,”  Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management of UNFPA, said of our work. 

Critical funding shortfalls continue to threaten the sustainability of UNFPA’s work in Afghanistan. Without additional support, 500 of our 900 UNFPA-supported health facilities will be forced to close in the coming months, leaving around 7.3 million people, mostly women and girls, without access to lifesaving reproductive health, maternal care, and psychosocial services.

UNFPA will be staying to deliver, but we cannot sustain our response without help. We need urgent support to keep these services running and to protect the dignity, health, and lives of Afghan women and newborns.

You can help childbirth be a moment of strength, not fear. Please make a monthly gift of any amount to ensure the long-term future of lifesaving services for women and girls in remote areas of Afghanistan and hard-to-reach regions around the world.

Thank you for being there for women, girls, and mothers and their newborns.

— USA for UNFPA