Will you help save the life of a mother or child?

In Afghanistan, women and children are more likely to die in childbirth than almost anywhere else in the world. As the country faces an insecure and uncertain future, we need your help to make sure vulnerable women and children aren't forgotten.

Protecting Afghanistan's women and children

HealthProm has been protecting mothers and children in Afghanistan for the last 12 years. Our dedicated teams worked in the remote mountain villages of Charkent and Marmul districts, leading to a huge reduction in the deaths of children and young mothers.

Last year, we began work in another district, Kaldar. When the Taliban overran the area, our vital work was halted. Today, with the approval of the new Taliban authority, we are cautiously preparing to resume our lifesaving work.

Yet across so much of the country, women and children continue to die needlessly. Now, with your help, we hope to extend our work to other areas of Afghanistan as soon as conditions allow.

Our lifesaving approach

HealthProm's approach is based on working together with the local community in each village, helping parents to reduce the risks of childbirth and promote the health of their children.

Our interventions are simple, cost-effective and sustainable. Most maternal and newborn deaths can be prevented with basic, low-cost interventions, such as encouraging locals to make baby blankets with wool from their own sheep to counter hypothermia, a major killer of newborn babies.

· On alternate months, we take the local midwife to each village to provide antenatal care and encourage parents to plan where births will take place and how they will get there.

· We train volunteer community health workers to provide basic health care for women and children in their villages.

· We work with locals to dig wells for each village and to improve nutrition and livelihoods through irrigation, enabling fruit tree cultivation and vegetable gardening.

By providing villagers with simple means, deaths can be reduced for generations to come. But we can do nothing without your help.

A legacy of hope

Our work with approximately 22,000 men and women in 24 remote villages benefits over one thousand women who give birth each year, their newborn babies and their other children.

But as the country faces the twin threats of insecurity and drought, with childhood malnutrition on the rise once again, our work is needed like never before. Working with the Taliban regime will be a challenge, but, with your support, we will not forget our commitment to the women and children of Afghanistan.

Please, will you help us protect women and children at risk today?

In Afghanistan, your gift goes a long way. Through our work and your kindness, vulnerable mothers and children can be protected and lives saved. Nothing of what you give will be wasted.

· £10 could buy 10 clean birth kits to prevent infections for mothers who can't reach health centres and are forced to give birth on the floor at home.

· £15 could pay to transport a woman in labour and her husband to the nearest health centre and return them with their baby.

· £40 could buy medicines and supplies for one village for three months.

· £100 could pay for antenatal care visits by a midwife for all pregnant women in two villages for one month.

Please, if you can, help HealthProm make sure isolated and vulnerable women and children are protected.

If, for any reason, we are unable to continue our work in Afghanistan as planned, the funds raised here will be used to support Afghan refugees arriving in the UK.

Thank you.

Find out more information about our work at www.healthprom.org, or get in touch with the HealthProm Afghanistan team directly:

· Masood Amer, UK Project Manager: masood@healthprom.org

· Dr Stewart Britten, Medical Advisor: stewart.britten@zen.co.uk