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Home Afghanistan's Disability Crisis

As many as 10 percent of Afghanistan’s people are disabled from untreated illnesses or war-related injuries, and years of war has left the country with virtually no healthcare infrastructure. Former United Nations aid worker Dost Mohammad Khi-Ree came to the United States as a refugee after 9/11. In 1999, while working on an aid mission for the U.N. in Afghanistan, he contracted an infection of the nervous system that left him paralyzed. Physical therapy in the U.S. helped him regain some use of his upper body -- in stark contrast to the care he had received in Afghanistan. Experiencing the life of the disabled in the United States, he said, was like school to him. The difference inspired him to create an organization to help the disabled in Afghanistan.

This New York Times video follows Khi-Ree on his first trip back to Afghanistan where he meets with other disabled Afghans, a Red Cross physician and a community leader.  They all agree that the disability crisis is a big problem, but also agree that the government’s attention is elsewhere – on solving a more pressing food crisis. On the trip, Khi-Ree is frustrated by almost non-existent accessibility in Afghanistan. He found only one wheelchair ramp on the whole trip – and even that had too steep of a pitch for Khi-Ree to navigate on his own. Conclusion: In Afghanistan the needs of the disabled are overshadowed by hunger and war.

Length: 5:49

Video: Don Duncan and Jessica Wanke

VIEW: http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=2de8105abbba7f49589d5ccf0b406ac1254efada

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