November 09, 2006	Thursday	Shawwal 16, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Nov 8: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a three-year project in the Federally-Administrated Tribal Areas to improve child health services.

The project to be implemented in seven tribal agencies of Fata aims to prevent child-related diseases, said an official of the Save the Children, US, which is implementing the project in collaboration with the directorate of health.

"About 60 per cent of childhood deaths are caused by acute respiratory infections and diarrhoeal ailments in developing countries. A project is being launched by the USAID in collaboration with the health department later this month in Fata to stem the tide of childhood diseases," said, Dr Amanullah Khan, deputy country director of health of Save The Children US (SCUS).

An amount of $11.50million would be spent during the project entitled "The Child Survival and Improvement of Health Status of Children in Fata," he said.

Over a period of three years of the project, interventions would be made to strengthen the health services relating to child and newborn health and enable them to continue provision of quality health services on sustainable ground, he added.

It would focus on strategies such as strengthening of expanded programme on immunisation (EPI), acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and management of diarrhoeal disease besides nutrition of children under five and pregnant women, he said.

Dr Khan said that the health management information system would also be strengthened to collect data regarding kid-related health issues and take measures to cope with the situation. He said that they had planned to reduce drastically the infant and child mortality, morbidity and disability rate in Fata.

"To provide comprehensive paediatric services at the health facilities, child health days at the community level would be observed to raise awareness among the people about childhood ailments," he added.

According to him, EPI, nutrition, health, education and routine check-ups of child specialists would carry out child-related health issues within less than five years.

He said that during the course of the project, baseline studies would be conducted regarding child health problems. He said that efforts would be made to bring the EPI coverage to 80 per cent in Fata. For this purpose, essential newborn-care services would be launched at the level of tehsil headquarters (THQs) hospitals, rural health centres (RHCs) and basic health units (BHUs), he said.

Furthermore, he informed that the latest equipment would be provided to the health facilities apart from imparting necessary training to the doctors, paramedics, lady health visitors and lady health workers to cater to the needs of children in all agencies of Fata.

He said that malnutrition among children and pregnant women was the main problem affecting their health. For this purpose, the women would be provided nutritional support and training to raise the level of their awareness regarding nutritional matters, he added.

He was of the view that the department would use its own staff and facilities, but the SCUS would provide much-needed technical and material support to make the project a success story.

He said that most of the health units in Fata lacked proper storage facilities due to which the danger of expiry of medicines loomed large. For this purpose, the SCUS would put in place storage facilities in line with internationally-recognised standards to save the medicines from losing its efficacy.

He said that capacity building of the staff was also among the interventions to be made during the implementation of the project.