The Aga Khan University (AKU) and key government officials marked the launch of a major new project aimed at improving maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in Pakistan.
Funded by a US$25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Umeed-e-Nau (A New Hope) is a five-year project that will see AKU work with public sector programmes and primary care providers such as Lady Health Workers and Community Health Midwives to deliver proven interventions and improve the quality of care at health facilities in 14 mainly rural districts in Balochistan, Southern Punjab and Sindh, as well as urban slums in Karachi.
The districts include Badin, Dadu, Hyderabad/Matiari, Karachi, Jafferabad, Jamshoro, Lasbela, Mirpur Khas, Muzaffargarh, Nasirabad, Qambar Shahdadkot, Rahim Yar Khan, Sanghar and Thatta. The project also includes a groundbreaking effort to provide health education through schools for adolescent girls in Pakistan.
“Federal and provincial governments, public and private institutions, civil society and all of us have to team up to meet the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030,” said Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Founding Director of the Aga Khan University’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health.
“Projects like Umeed-e-Nau can help Pakistan achieve Goal 3 for health, which also requires additional investments in improving nutrition, keeping children in schools and addressing environmental health and gender equity.”
The project will operate through a new research centre, the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, which will be established through a generous gift of Rs 2 billion from the Hashoo Foundation.
Ministry of National Health Sciences Regulations and Coordination Secretary Muhammad Ayub Shaikh expressed his commitment to join hands with AKU and accelerate their progress.
“Umeed-e-Nau will test a variety of approaches in an effort to develop insights and evidence that can influence policy across the country and beyond its borders,” Professor Bhutta added. “We believe that the project will reduce stillbirths and newborn deaths by 20 per cent, as well as deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea by 30 per cent through these strategies.”
its a good work and important step taken by agha khan foundation, i hope it would continue for a long period. i am willing to know about the contact information of District Muzzafargarh to communicate with them to ask and discuss some issue.
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