Featured Grantee Fact Sheet


About the Together Women Rise Grants Program

Together Women Rise is a collective giving community advancing global gender equality. Through our Featured Grants Program, Together Women Rise provides funding to organizations that empower and support women and girls in low-income and marginalized communities in the Global South.

In Afghanistan, something extraordinary is happening in the most difficult of circumstances – and you are part of the reason why.

One Day’s Wages exists to alleviate extreme poverty by investing in, amplifying, and coming alongside locally led organizations in underserved communities.

Roshina’s Story

In Afghanistan, where opportunities for women have become increasingly limited, Roshina stands as a quiet force of resilience. At 27, she is not only a trained midwife but also the sole provider for her family, working tirelessly to care for over 100 patients a week. In a country with some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, her work is a lifeline. Since 2021, women have been banned from education beyond age 12, meaning no new midwives are being trained. Those already in the field, like Roshina, face significant barriers to professional growth – yet their role is more critical than ever.

Roshina felt that she needed more training to be able to confidently deal with complications like fistula, pre-eclampsia, and breech deliveries. She was able to attend an intensive training program for midwives, equipping her with the skills she needed to save lives. This training, provided by One Day’s Wages’ implementing partner, Action for Development, is led by a highly qualified team of Afghan nationals. For Roshina, this training was transformative. She now has the confidence and knowledge to save even more lives. And in a time when Afghan women have been pushed into isolation, midwives like her offer more than medical care – they provide a rare source of support, connection, and dignity.

Understanding the Issue in Context

For women in Afghanistan today, daily life presents profound and deeply personal challenges.

In 2021, after over 40 years of conflict and civil war, the Taliban reestablished control of Afghanistan. The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist political and military organization that first emerged in Afghanistan in 1994, during a period of civil war following the collapse of the communist-led government that had been in power since 1978. The Soviet Union backed this government, and its military was engaged in Afghanistan for ten years, from 1979 to 1989. A number of Islamist militant groups formed in response and competed for control after the government’s collapse. The Taliban ultimately prevailed and seized control in 1996, ruling until 2001 when it was removed by a U.S.-led coalition. It returned to power in 2021. Under Taliban governance, Afghanistan operates under a strict interpretation of Islamic law, with severe limitations on women’s freedoms, significant economic hardship, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Afghanistan is one of the most economically vulnerable nations in the world. After more than two decades of conflict, decades of dependence on international assistance have left communities deeply exposed when that support shifts. Foreign aid helped drive meaningful economic progress between 2001 and 2013, with GDP per capita rising from $277 to $581 (in constant 2015 US dollars). But when the Taliban reestablished control in 2021 and foreign countries withdrew financial assistance and froze central bank assets, GDP per capita fell about 30% – to $378 by 2023, the second lowest in the world. The communities most affected are also the most resilient – and the most in need of sustained support.

The reduction in international assistance has had immediate consequences on the ground. Afghanistan has long relied on foreign aid to sustain basic services. When the Taliban reestablished control, many countries curtailed that support significantly. U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan – which had represented roughly a third of all international assistance – dropped from $775 million in FY 2024 to $10 million in FY 2025, following the dismantling of USAID. The result has been hundreds of facility closures and serious shortages of supplies and personnel, particularly among female health workers – who are often the only care providers women can access. This is precisely the gap that locally led organizations like Act4Dev are working to fill.

A 2023 United Nations study estimates that 85% of people in Afghanistan live on less than one dollar a day. Women face the sharpest burden of this poverty. Girls are currently prohibited from attending school after year six, and women are barred from most forms of employment – with a narrow exception for certain health professions. It is within that narrow space that midwives like Roshina continue to show up, every day, for the women who need them most.

* measured in constant 2015 US dollars

Community-Based Solutions in Action

One Day’s Wages supports projects in low-income countries that equip girls and women with skills, knowledge, and resources to rise out of extreme poverty. It prioritizes populations experiencing multiple vulnerabilities, and solutions that address the multi-dimensional aspects of poverty.

Together Women Rise’s grant of $50,000 funds the Advancing Maternal Health in Afghanistan project, which will address two problems in Afghanistan – the high maternal death rate and the extremely restricted employment opportunities for women. The implementing partner for this project is Action for Development (Act4Dev), a nonprofit founded by Afghan professionals who fled the country and now reside in Geneva, Switzerland. One Day’s Wages has partnered with Act4Dev since 2020.

Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate is among the highest in the world. In 2023 (the most recent year available), there were 521 maternal deaths due to pregnancy-related causes for every 100,000 live births in Afghanistan. (In 2023, Nigeria had the highest rate at 993 deaths per 100,000 live births. By comparison, the U.S. had 17 deaths per 100,000 live births that year.) Taliban policies restrict women’s mobility and thus hinder their access to health care. These policies also prevent male doctors from treating female patients, so there is a tremendous need for qualified, confident, and well-trained female health professionals. Midwives are often the only health workers in rural communities, and this represents one of the few opportunities women have to earn an income.

While there are no official updated statistics since the Taliban takeover, research conducted by Doctors Without Borders revealed that 88% of Afghans suspended or did not seek healthcare in 2022, and the United Nations projected that Afghanistan’s maternal death rate would increase by 50% in 2025.

This project addresses both problems by strengthening the professional capacity of midwives and expanding access to midwife-led care.

  • Over two years, Act4Dev will host 10-day intensive training for midwives in Parwan and Takhar Provinces. Each trained midwife is expected to share her knowledge with at least three peers, creating a multiplier effect that will reach 160 midwives and improve care for an estimated 16,000 pregnant women. Training modules covering complications such as breech deliveries and pre-eclampsia are regularly updated in response to participant feedback, building on a successful pilot that produced a 46% increase in midwives’ knowledge and confidence.
  • In parallel, the project supports operations at Act4Dev’s midwife-led community health clinic in Kabul, which opened in August 2024. Staffed by four midwives and a gynecologist, the clinic provides prenatal and postnatal care to 1,100 women annually, referring complicated cases to government hospitals when needed. A hybrid financing model ensures equity: women who are able to pay contribute modest fees, while those living in poverty (about 80% of clients) receive care free of charge. Client feedback collected upon discharge is used to continuously refine and strengthen services.

Together, these interventions expand the professional capacity of Afghanistan’s midwives while directly improving access to safe, high-quality maternal healthcare for vulnerable women and families.

Impact and Transformation

Since 2009, One Day’s Wages has supported 60 projects focused on women’s empowerment, directly impacting over 65,000 people. The organization chooses to work through already existing, locally founded and led partner organizations that best understand their communities’ contexts and needs.

This project will result in increased knowledge and confidence among the trained midwives – an outcome measured through pre-training and post-training assessments completed by midwives who participate in in-person training. The target is a 50% increase in confidence and knowledge over the 10-day training period. Those post-training assessments are also used to adjust training content and methodologies to ensure the midwives are receiving what they need to best care for women and babies.

“Thank you for bringing us this training; it is the first training I have had since I qualified as a midwife.”
– A midwife trained during the pilot phase of this project

 

In addition, the project will result in decreased maternal death rates among the 2,200 pregnant women served at the Kabul Health Centre Maternity Clinic. (Maternal and newborn statistics are being tracked at the clinic to establish a baseline.) A reduction in maternal death rates is an indicator of midwives’ capacity and the accessibility of healthcare services for women living in extreme poverty.

“This maternity service provides a very important service for families who might not otherwise be able to deliver their baby in a hospital.” – Clinic client

Positive changes will be sustained beyond the two-year grant period by developing online training modules for midwives that decrease the cost of training and mitigate risks for women living in a politically volatile context. (Act4Dev continues to receive the necessary approvals to implement its programs, although the Taliban recently prohibited new midwives from being trained). Online modules will also allow Act4Dev to provide more consistent follow-up support to midwives trained in provinces outside of Kabul.

Direct impact: 2,360 women and girls; Indirect impact: 16,000 women and girls

Your Impact

When you support Together Women Rise, your contribution reaches women in some of the most isolated and underserved places on earth. In Afghanistan – where a woman dies in childbirth every two hours, and where the number of trained midwives is shrinking – the work being done by Roshina and her colleagues is nothing short of extraordinary. And it continues because people like you.

Together Women Rise’s $50,000 grant is funding training for 160 midwives and supporting a clinic that serves 1,100 women a year – women who would otherwise have no access to safe prenatal or postnatal care. Each midwife trained goes on to share her knowledge with at least three peers, creating a ripple of impact that reaches an estimated 16,000 pregnant women. In a country where international aid has fallen dramatically, this kind of sustained, locally led investment is what keeps life-saving care alive. That is the power of your support.

Mission Alignment

This project strengthens maternal health in Afghanistan at two critical levels: by building the professional capacity of midwives and by expanding access to midwife-led care for women who would otherwise go without. The model is responsive and evidence-based, with training curricula adapted directly from midwives’ feedback to ensure relevance and effectiveness. At the same time, the Kabul clinic provides compassionate, high-quality prenatal and postnatal services to women regardless of their ability to pay, offering dignity and equity in care. By combining professional development, community-centered health services, and a sustainable financing approach, this project creates lasting impact for women, families, and communities. Support for this project – made possible by members of Together Women Rise – lets Afghan women know that they have not been forgotten.

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