“In Afghanistan, civilians pay the highest price in the ongoing conflict and there is great need for health assistance and specific care to be given to the victims of mines and explosive devices. In order to tackle this emergency, I have arranged – through the Italian Cooperation service – a contribution of 500,000 euros to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will use it to finance the vast network of orthopaedic centres that the Committee disposes of in the Country, including the Ali Abad University Hospital in Kabul, which is also equipped with a little factory for the production of prostheses,” announced the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano.
Minister Alfano continued: “With this project, we intend to offer tangible help to the many innocent victims – often children – of the violence that still pervades Afghanistan; the care of the physicians of the International Red Cross will make it possible to expedite the rehabilitation of the patients and improve their mobility.”
The aforesaid activities bolster the leading role played by Italy in humanitarian mine clearance operations and in providing assistance to the victims of war bombs. Italy is one of the few Countries in the world to have a law on humanitarian mine clearance – Law No. 58 of 2001 – that annually allocates resources for this type of activities to a special fund managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The Afghanistan project is also in line with the priority attributed by Italian Cooperation to protecting disabled persons in conflict scenarios.
