DUSHANBE, December 30 2014, Asia-Plus – The December 20 edition of The Lancet published the results of its year end photography competition to highlight important health issues.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) says that in amongst the twelve winners was an image of an appliqué wall hanging made in 2008 by the third group of students to attend the Bamyan Community Midwifery School in central Afghanistan.  It depicts a very sad scene of a lady’s difficult journey to a health facility, who ultimately lost her life during childbirth.

A similar wall hanging was made three years later and paints a different story, as this time the expectant mother was treated by a local midwife trained by the Aga Khan Health Services’ Community Midwifery School.  In Bamyan, the School was established in 2004 and is linked to the provincial hospital.  Since its inception, 132 community midwives have graduated and the percentage of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants in the Bamyan province has increased from 37.2% in 2007 to 64.0% in 2013.

Founded in 1823 by English surgeon Thomas Wakley, The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world''s oldest and best known general medical journals, and has been described as one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world.

Thomas Wakley named the journal after the surgical instrument called a lancet, as well as after the architectural term “lancet arch.” a window with a sharp pointed arch, to indicate the “light of wisdom” or “to let in light.”