The operation of the Chak Hospital has been running almost undisturbed for 30 years. And so it is now, after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. “It’s almost a miracle,” says its founder Karla Schefter. The now 79-year-old has seen many changes of government. She saw the Taliban seize power in the 1990s and then lose it again. The province of Wardak, in which the hospital is located and with which the municipality of Oberhaching maintains a special connection, has long been in the hands of the Taliban again. Now they are back in Kabul too. Nevertheless, the situation in Chak is calm. “You could almost say for sure,” says Schefter. “The hospital is a neutral, medical party. Nothing else.”
Ludwig Pichler is chairman of the association that collects donations for the Chak-e-Wardak hospital project year after year and thus keeps the hospital alive. The second mayor of Oberhaching and teacher at the grammar school says “the Taliban ruling there respect and protect the hospital”. Karla Schefter herself offered protection to the Taliban on one of their trips – she refused. Because the neutrality of the hospital and its employees is the top priority and at the same time its guarantee of survival. “Right now it is becoming clear how quickly the fronts are changing. If the hospital had ever taken sides for one side or the other, it would certainly have been subject to attacks from the respective opponent,” says Pichler.
The clinic has been in the Taliban area for some time.
(Photo: Afghanistan Committee)
The patients are treated in the clinic regardless of gender, origin, income or political convictions. Over the years, a relationship of trust has developed with the population. The Taliban left the hospital alone, says Schefter, because family members or they themselves have already been treated there. During the first Taliban rule, women were banned from working, but medical staff were not affected. Today 17 women belong to the 70-strong staff of the hospital. They work as nurses, doctors and midwives. It also includes a school that the employees’ children can attend – including the girls. Women will continue to work there and the girls will be able to go to hospital school: Pichler is certain of that. Because: “The Taliban hardly interfere in the operational business of hospital operations.” Karla Schefter confirms this. However, she cannot say whether this also applies to women in other provinces. In general, it remains to be seen how the situation develops.
There is chaos in Kabul right now. Schefter also knows this from the employees in the contact office with whom she is in contact. At the moment, all shops are closed in the capital of Afghanistan, which is only about 70 kilometers from Chak-e-Wardak, says Schefter. Only small shops that sell the essentials are open. Nobody knows how to proceed. Medicines and medical aids cannot be obtained from Kabul at the moment. But Schefter is optimistic: “In Afghanistan they say: There is a path over every mountain. We have already brought medication across the Pakistani border to the hospital. So far we have always managed to do it somehow.” For the time being, there is still enough in stock because supplies are always being bought for six months. The food supply is guaranteed for at least six months because the food is also bought in advance and stored in containers. Schefter wanted to prefer winter shopping. That no longer worked because the bank in Kabul was closed.
The Oberhaching grammar school is the most important donor for the hospital.
(Photo: private)
The hospital in eastern Afghanistan is her life’s work. Karla Schefter was born in East Prussia and fled to Germany, where she trained as a nurse in Giessen. She was the head operating room nurse at the municipal clinics in Dortmund and made the decision to go abroad. In 1989 she worked for the German-Afghan Committee. She got the order to go to Chak to provide medical care to the people in the remote mountain village. The clinic project was born. A doctor from Geretsried in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district got involved and contact was made with the grammar school in Oberhaching, where, according to Pichler, they were looking for a social aid project.
The work that Karla Schefter built up continues.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The high school is now closely linked to the Afghanistan Committee CPHA, the association that finances the hospital. Pichler is the chairman. Stefanie Hottarek, member of the parents’ council at Oberhaching grammar school, is a member of the board. She says the school, with its fundraising runs, is the most important donor for running the clinic. 52,000 euros were raised again this year. Hottarek puts the annual expense for the clinic at 600,000 to 700,000 euros. The medical device is old and often needs to be replaced.
Initially only a few people knew about the hospital, but now around 60,000 people are treated there annually. One thing was always clear to Karla Schefter: It’s about people. “If someone is lying there naked, helpless, completely at the mercy, then it doesn’t matter who he is. That’s why they take every patient in, don’t ask where they come from. Patient is patient.” It is important that patients are treated free of charge, because hardly anyone can afford medical treatment, and it is often only available in the cities. The capital Kabul is not far away, but the road is bad and leads over the mountains. It is therefore not uncommon for the journey to the city to take three hours. The 400,000 residents of Wardak Province would have no access to medical care without the hospital.
Even if this is apparently not threatened by the takeover of rule by the Taliban, the people and their belongings are in danger. One of Schefter’s contacts told her that some would disguise themselves as Taliban and then loot houses and steal cars: “You can hardly tell who belongs to the Taliban and who is a thief.” Looting and corruption are only effects of poverty in the country, Karla Schefter would like to emphasize.
No matter what happens, the hospital “is and will remain an oasis of peace,” says Ludwig Pichler with conviction. In 2011, as a member of the school management, he took over the organization of the annual Afghanistan Day. Because of the corona pandemic, the need for donations for the hospital could not be met last year. Fortunately, the club has reserves with which the deficit could be balanced, says Pichler. “In the long run, however, we are again dependent on higher donations.”
For more information about Chak-e-Wardak and how everyone can help, see https://www.chak-hospital.org/