Take a journey to Afghanistan via a mobile exhibition, titled A Candle in the Dark, at Braybrook library.
The exhibition includes photos tracing Save the Children’s Children of Uruzgan program in one of Afghanistan’s most conservative and insecure provinces.
Every year in Uruzgan, about 300 mothers and more than 3000 children under the age of five die.
Less than half of children under the age of two have received basic immunisations, while one-third of the population lacks access to any health services.
Children have had few opportunities to access formal education for decades, with only one in five children aged between seven and 13 attending school. Less than 10 per cent of these are girls.
In A Candle in the Dark, evocative images by Elissa Bogos Mirzaei and Mats Lignell introduce the people who are changing Uruzgan’s future for the better through the Children of Uruzgan program, a partnership between the Australian government and Save the Children Australia.
The four-year program aims to improve access to basic health and education for children and their families. It is training about 300 community health workers, as well as 50 midwives to ensure women have access to skilled birth attendants during childbirth.
The program will improve basic education for children by building community schools and training 1000 teachers, including females, to encourage more girls to attend school.
A Candle in the Dark will be at Braybrook library until November 20.
