Giving birth in Darcht-e-Batchi

In 2014, MSF opened an emergency obstetric and newborn care service in Dasht-e-Barchi. It is the only service of this type for the inhabitants of this district in the southwest of Kabul, the Afghan capital.
On May 12, 2020, armed men attack the maternity unit with the sole objective of killing mothers. The results are dramatic: 24 women and health care personnel died under the bullets, along with other people present that day at the hospital. 20 other people were injured.

Photographer Sandra Calligaro went to the maternity hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi last December, a few weeks before this tragic event. She recounts her meeting with some of these women, for whom the maternity represented security and comfort.

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