Area: 249,935 sq. mi.; slightly smaller than Texas
Capital: Kabul (1,780,000)
Population: 31,056,997
Government: Islamic Republic

 

General Country Information:

Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., a U.S., Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December. Karzai was re-elected in November 2009 for a second term. Despite gains toward building a stable central government, a resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial instability - particularly in the south and the east - remain serious challenges for the Afghan Government. Afghanistan is located in southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran. Total are is 652,230 sq km - slightly smaller than Texas. Weather is arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers. Natural hazards include damaging earthquakes in Hindu Kush mountains, flooding and droughts. Current environmental issues are: limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials); desertification; air and water pollution.  Population is 28,395,716. Infant mortality rate: 153.14 deaths/1,000 live births. Total fertility rate: 5.5 children born/woman (2010 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 43.6%; 15-64 years: 54%;  65 years and over: 2.4% (2010 est.) Median age: 18 years.  (source: CIA World Factbook)

Upcoming Project: Jalalabad, Afghanistan – The General Hospital in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan.  Recently the Taliban tried to raid the  US Air Force Base in the outskirts of the city.  Afghanistan is in the middle of an expanded war and is a dangerous country at the moment.

In November 2005, Assist International partnered with Rotary District 5170 and the Oakland Rotary Club to complete an outstanding Neo Natal Intensive Care and Intensive Care Unit at the CURE INTERNATIONAL HOSPITAL in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to the Minister of Health, this is the first installation of its kind for the people of Afghanistan.

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