Mirwais is the region's main hospital for the treatment of war-wounded people, including victims of gunshot injuries and burns. The hospital also has extremely important paediatric and obstetrics wards, there being so many poor, displaced children and pregnant women in the area it covers.

"Mirwais hospital has a major shortage of blood for transfusion, especially in emergency cases", says Dr Sharifa Sidiqe, the facility's director. The ICRC's blood-collection initiative started with 46 medical students who volunteered to donate nearly half a litre each.

"We hope that this initial blood collection will motivate everyone in Kandahar to regularly donate blood in future", said Robert Keusen, an ICRC laboratory technician.

Having previously repaired and upgraded the surgical department at Mirwais, the ICRC recently extended its support to the entire 380-bed hospital, signing a five-year agreement with the Ministry of Public Health to implement a package of reforms. ''Together we are aiming to raise the standard of hospital services to a nationally agreed level'', Dr Sidiqe said. ''People expect change to happen quickly, without understanding the concept of capacity-building in order to achieve sustainable results. We should strive for realistic standards here in Afghanistan – which is, after all, not a Western context – and remember that we are starting from zero, from a state of total collapse.''

The ICRC has been working in Afghanistan since 1987, aiding people affected by successive armed conflicts that have ravaged the country. There are currently eight ICRC expatriate medical staff working at Mirwais hospital to support and train Afghan health-care personnel. The ICRC is focusing on improving the capacity of Mirwais personnel to provide essential services including high-quality surgical care for victims of the armed conflict and other emergencies.

The 10th anniversary of the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines is on 3 December 2007: for ICRC documents, feature articles and audio-visual material.