A Promise to Afghanistan’s Children: My Path Toward Innovation in Nutrition

An introduction to the name behind the app and how compassion inspired its creation.

My path in medicine has always been shaped by the place I call home. I was born and raised in Afghanistan, and like so many Afghans of my generation, my life and education unfolded during years of conflict and uncertainty. Even in those difficult times, pediatrics drew me in. There was something powerful about caring for children, about trying to protect the most vulnerable lives in a country that had already endured so much.

After graduating from Kabul University of Medical Sciences, I specialized in pediatrics and later completed my Pediatric Intensive Care training at BLK Hospital in New Delhi. Those years changed me. I saw the very best of modern medicine, and at the same time, I saw with painful clarity what Afghan children were missing back home.

Malnutrition was everywhere, in the clinics, in the wards, in the emergency rooms. I saw children whose entire futures were being shaped by something that should be entirely preventable. Too many young lives were lost or permanently affected, not because treatment did not exist, but because it often came too late. These experiences stayed with me. They shaped the doctor, the father, and the human being I have become.

This is why I pursued further training in nutrition, first a postgraduate diploma, then a master’s degree. I wanted to understand malnutrition not only as a medical condition, but as a social and economic reality affecting families across Afghanistan.

Today, I serve as a professor in the Nutrition Department at Kabul University of Medical

Sciences. My work in the classroom and in the field has shown me again and again that

Afghanistan needs tools that are practical, affordable, and built for our real-world conditions.

This is what led me to co-found Barakat Strategies.

Together, we are developing the Sophia App, a digital tool designed to help community health

workers identify and manage malnutrition early, accurately, and with confidence. For me, this

project is not an academic idea. It is a response to the thousands of children I have treated over

the years, and to the many parents who walked into clinics hoping that someone could help.

I believe this work can create real change, not only in Afghanistan, but in other low- and

middle-income countries facing the same challenges. As a doctor, a teacher, and a father of

three, I feel a deep responsibility to do whatever I can to give children a fair chance at a healthy

life.

This project is one way I can honor that responsibility.