Kabul / The Palestinian International Cooperation Agency started to implement the first phase of a development cooperation program in the medical field for the benefit of the health sector in the Republic of Afghanistan in full cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank Group, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Afghanistan and the embassies of both countries.
Ambassador Imad Al-Zuhairi, Director General of PICA considered that the implementation of this program comes within a frame to strengthening Triangular and South-South cooperation and under the umbrella of the reverse linkage mechanisms supervised by the Islamic Development Bank. The program aims at exchanging expertise and specialized knowledge of the OIC member states to achieve the set goals that serve the interest of the recipient and the provider countries of expertise.
The delegation of the State of Palestine, along with the Director General of PICA and Program Officer in charge of Central Asia file, Muhammad Khanfar, includes a number of specialized doctors from the Ministry of Health, as the delegation arrived in Kabul this morning.
Al-Zuhairi added that Palestinian doctors in the fields of emergency, burns and trauma will implement an agreed-upon program prepared in advance which includes conducting surgeries and examinations for patients in addition to providing specialized lectures for students of medical colleges, as well as conducting training courses for trainers and doctors in the agreed upon areas for a period of nine days. The second phase of the program will be conducted in July.
Palestinian doctors were dispatched to a number of hospitals and medical centers in the capital, Kabul. The interventions of the Palestinian delegation will also include a specific program in the city of Kandahar.
PICA’s program in Afghanistan is assisted by the field representation office of the Islamic Development Bank Group in Afghanistan. The program will also include conducting a number of important meetings with the foreign and finance ministers in his capacity as the governor of the IsDB for Afghanistan, the ministers of health and agriculture, and directors of international and non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.