In Afghanistan, women have little access to legal or community organisations involved in the defence of their fundamental rights. They are isolated, few of them work or have access to any social life outside the family home. Forced marriages account for 60 to 80% in the country, one third of the girls are married off before the age of 16, and domestic violence is prevalent in 9 out of 10 households. Combined with a faulty judicial system, these aspects lead many women to commit or attempt suicide.
HTI has been present in the Herat province since 2002. From the onset, the HTI teams identified a dramatic number of burn patients at the Herat Hospital, and primarily young women attempting suicide by self-burning. This scourge affected 300 to 350 women in 2005 in the province of Herat alone. These are young women and girls (aged 12-25), frequently married against their will upon return from emigration.
In 2007, HTI opened the Herat Hospital’s Burn Centre, now treating over 700 patients every year. HTI conducted a first phase of its women’s immolation prevention campaign from 2008 to 2009, jointly with the NGO Voice of Women, which proved very successful in terms of acceptance by the communities and of impact on reducing the number of self-immolations.

The foundation's support

At its 20 October 2010 meeting the Selection Committee decided to support HumaniTerra's project with a €25,000 grant. This amount will partly cover the campaign fees.

Expected results

Result 1: Women will be informed about the risks of self-immolation and available care services:
- Victims will have access to high quality healthcare and be aware of opportunities for social reintegration;
- Young girls in schools will receive information to understand opportunities available to them;
- Young boys in schools will gain better awareness of women’s rights, to help them change their outlook on the female population;
- Young women in the Herat province will be informed, via the media campaign, about existing medical and psycho-social care services, about their rights and about associations working for their protection.

Result 2: Capacity building of the local players to provide enhanced care services:
- The medical staff will gain awareness to the issue of self-immolation and to the medical and psychosocial care required for the patients;
- School teachers will be informed and trained to incorporate gender issues into their classes. They have viewed the film produced on the subject;
- Women associations will be strengthened and networked with the authorities;
- Local authorities (public and religious) will gain greater awareness on the issue and will be encouraged to defend the message.