Cure Hospital Director and Chief Medical Officer, Be Team International

Dr. Yousuf Khan was born in Kunar Province and one of twelve children. His family fled Afghanistan to avoid the war when he was six years old. They traveled four days on foot until they reached a refugee camp in Pakistan. They saw Afghans die along the way due to exposure and old age. They lived there in a Pakistani refugee camp for thirteen years. For two of those years, the large family lived in a one room tent or a hut made of mud. Dr Khan remembers fearing what would happen whenever his father left the tent to look for work, because on several occasions, it had nearly blown away during a storm. As his district in Kunar Province was one of the earliest to resist the Russian invasion at the time of a new communist government, they endured horrendous destruction. When the family returned to Afghanistan, they found most of their village destroyed by bombing. No one had lived in the area for a decade. The family and neighbors worked together to rebuild their homes, schools and village.

While in Pakistan, Dr. Khan finished his secondary education and studied engineering. However, after his acceptance into medical school, Dr. Khan switched his career and earned his medical degree from the Nangarhar Medical Faculty in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He immediately started practicing medicine in some of Afghanistan’s most remote villages, starting at the Shirkat Hospital in Gulbahar with Medicin Sans Frontier. Following this, he was hired by MedAir, another non-government organization, as Clinical Supervisor to oversee its work in three districts of Ragh, Badakshan. Traveling by horseback across snow-covered mountains, he and the MedAir team were often the first and only doctors seen by the village people. His work with MedAir was expanded to Project Manager. In this capacity, he oversaw the implementation of the ‘Basic Package of Health Services’ (BPHS) in Badakshan province, with special attention to improve access to healthcare for women and children.

After leading this project for four years, Dr. Khan was motivated to become more equipped to address the many healthcare problems he had seen, especially related to maternal mortality. He applied for and was accepted to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where he earned a Diploma in Reproductive Health for Developing Countries.  Upon returning to Afghanistan, Dr. Khan was recruited by CURE to join other members of the MedAir Team to assist with developing its obstetrics/gynecology training program in Kabul. Starting as Deputy Medical Director in 2008, Dr. Khan was promoted to Hospital Medical Director and then Executive Director, a position he has held for five years.  Under his steady leadership, the hospital has gained a national reputation for its excellent services and training programs. Yousuf has been married for 29 years. He and his wife are the proud parents of ten children.