- Background information: Organization for People’s Health in Action (OPHA) is a non-profit seeking, non-governmental NGO established in 14/10 /2017 (1396/07/22) in Afghanistan. OPHA is dedicated to saving the lives and relieving the sufferings of the people through capacity building of health system cadres, emergency management and developmental programs in the country. OPHA activities are focusing on providing health assistance, health programs and social development to vulnerable communities in Afghanistan. OPHA is founded by a team of experienced public health specialists with technical and managerial experience in national and international organizations for many years.
The organization is officially registered with the ministry of the economy with registration ID # 4280
The organization has dedicated professionals with a passion to make quality health care in Afghanistan accessible to vulnerable strata. The senior management team has developed and earned an in-depth knowledge of health care needs, expertise in the delivery of health care services, and participated in the improvement of the health sector in Afghanistan through the implementation of BPHS and EPHS and many other relevant vertical projects.
The mission and vision of the organization:
- The overall objective/ vision of the organization is ‘’change dreams into actions toward healthy people and healthy community ’’.
- The mission of the organization is’’ to enable the people to attain the equal rights to health care, protection, social development, and participation’’
The strategic direction of the organization is set up in four dimensions:
- Health,
- Nutrition,
- Community development.
- Research and education.
The organization is governed/managed through different layers of governance in the following manner; OPHA has one general assembly at the top level which is the leading top governance body of the organization.
Subsequent to this body is a board of trustees comprised of volunteer and dedicated members with different educational and experience backgrounds. The senior board of management is the third layer in the governance hierarchy of the organization and includes the general director and its technical and financial deputies. Its jurisdiction is the daily management of the organization, networking, and fundraising, and organization development activities. OPHA has been an extremely effective catalyst in developmental and health activities in the country through active contribution in the different forums of MoPH and UN agencies as well as local communities.
- OPHA is a very young and newly established organization, but the founders, management staff of the organization has tremendous experience in leadership, management, and capacity building with national and international organizations, these experiences will be fully utilized in building the capacity of BPHS and EPHS HFs staff. OPHA is responsible for capacity building and professional development of Logar’s entire BPHS and EPHS staff. (1676 BPHS / EPHS staff).OPHA has 22 management staff ( 9 staff in HQ, 13 Staff in FO, and 395 Community Health Workers (CHW) and currently managing Lodin District Hospital, OPHA completed 24 Months of the training program of Community Midwifery Education (CME), and Community Health Nursing Education (CHNE) programs in Logar province. A total of 24 community midwives and 24 community nurses successfully graduated from these programs. OPHA is also running a total of 232 Health Posts in all seven districts of Logar province.OPHA is an active contributing member of health and nutrition clusters. The leadership of the organization has a high-level academic experience to the level of a master’s degree in the community development program. In addition to that, 15 years of leadership and management expertise of the leading member of the organization is to be overemphasized.
- OPHA started the implementation of Twinning program phase-2 as NNGO after signing the triple MoU with ACBAR as mentor and SAF as Adviser of the program. The program has started in Nov 2019 and will be ended by the end of Nov 2020. The Twinning Program aims to address this by pairing NNGOs with Advisors that provide mentoring and guidance to their Afghan counterparts on institutional management, humanitarian practices, and strategy. The beneficiary of this project is the OPHA organization
- OPHA has the honor of implementing the Afghanistan COVID-19 emergency response and health preparedness project in Logar province through a partnership with CAF. The project is started in Jun 2020and will be ended by end of Nov 2020. The project is funded by the world bank. The overall objectives of the project are to protect our citizens from the spread of COVID-19, to respond and mitigate the threat posed by COVID-19 in Logar province, and to strengthen national health systems preparedness and capacity to respond to public health emergencies. One of the aims of this project is to avoid disruption of BPHS/EPHS service delivery under the Sehatmandi project. Total beneficiaries of the project are 430,917 people
- OPHA has implemented the Whole of Afghanistan Multi-sectorial need assessment (MSNA) 2020 project in Logar province through a partnership with the ACTED organization. The project started on Aug 2020 and has been ended on the 15th of Sep 2020. The general objectives of this project is to Inform multi-cluster humanitarian programming for the Afghanistan response by identifying inter-sectoral needs and how they inter-relate across different geographic locations and population groups outlined in the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO). Findings from the first assessment will then inform the 2020 HNO, and support the updating of the 2018-2021 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2021. WoAAs 2018 – 2023 ultimately aims to capture trends of inter-sectoral/sectoral needs within and across vulnerable populations.
- Senior staff profile:
Dr.M.Nazir Rasuly: Dr. Rasuly is the general director and founder of OPHA. Dr. Rasuly has working experience in the CSO milieu since 1990. Public health intervention experience and community development experience is another dimension of his expertise. Dr. Rasuly has worked in different managerial and leadership positions, as general director of CAF from 2007 till 2012, health director, and technical advisor of CAF, and finally general director of OPHA. He is a medical doctor and has earned a Master’s degree in community change and conservation from US-based Future Generation University.
Dr. Juma Khan Naser Khairzadah is a medical doctor and has more than 25 years experience of in public health and management. He has served as general director for SAF, a national NGO for many years, as country director in ORCD another national NGO. Currently, he is the program director in OPHA and one of the main senior pillars of OPHA.
Moreover, Dr. Khairzada is the elected country focal of Afghanistan CSOs for GFF (Global Financing Facility) which is a new funding mechanism for the support of every woman every child-initiated by WB. At the same time, he is the steering committee member in the Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) which is a global network and is based in Washington DC.
He is also a member of the High-Level Oversight Committee which is chaired by his excellency the minister of Public health and a member of the Afghanistan GFF Technical Committee working group which is chaired by her excellency the deputy minister of MoPH in planning and policy.
