Even though she is not a physician, Fatma has a close affinity with the medical world. The larger part of the board members of KEIHAN, her Afghan foundation in the Netherlands, is medical student. ‘Among other things, our foundation focuses on exchange projects and organising educational and cultural activities.’
Fatma: 'IOM has facilitated us tremendously. I was deployed by IOM to Afghanistan for three months to find out what the hospitals and the faculties of medicine need.’ She came back with a whole shopping list of needs, which showed, among other things, that there is no long-term health care policy.
‘Evidence-based medicine does not exist in Afghanistan. Students learn theories, but don’t carry out their own research’. As a result, policies are mostly taken over from other countries, without any research into whether that application fits the purpose. According to Fatma, this has everything to do with mentality and a lack of research skills.
Fatma is currently linking up Afghan universities, Dutch-Afghan health professionals and Dutch universities. She hopes to go on another mission via IOM, because she wants to set up and assist projects in her country of origin. ‘It is a complicated job, but I am convinced that research will play a prominent role in improving the quality of Afghan health care.’
