Our troops in Afghanistan

Did you know Malaysia has a small contingent in Afghanistan? It’s helping Rebuilding Smiles

Nordin led a team of 40 staff members to continue Malcon-ISAF missions in several districts of the Bamyan province, including the capital, Bamiyan, and rural districts such as Yakawlang, Wasar, and Panjab.
His team, which was the third deployment on a six-month rotation from Malaysia, comprised officers and enlisted personnel from the Royal Medical and Dental Corp, as well as administrative and security personnel from the Malaysian Armed Forces.
“Our mission is to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Bamyan so that they will be able to reconstruct the province,” explains Nordin, adding that “we are focusing more on capacity building.”
While the previous Malcon-ISAF teams focused on providing medical assistance, Nordin’s team has expanded Malaysia’s assistance to helping the community achieve some form of clinical governance, where systematic programmes are devised to help healthcare professionals in the province better care for their own people.
Together with dental surgeon Kolonel Dr Kamal Abdullah, senior medical officer Mejar Dr Mohd Zaki Mokhtar, and Kapten Dr Nor Azimah Zakaria, who led the dental, medical and health promotion teams respectively, Nordin worked with the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to come up with innovative programmes to help the people of Bamyan gain access to clean water, an uninterrupted power supply, better oral care, and access to information on family planning.

Kudos to our military men and women who are helping the Afghanistan people in their hour of need. We are proud of you.