MUZAFFARABAD, April 23: Britain-based Merlin medical aid agency is launching a training programme for woman health workers to provide healthcare to women and children in quake-hit areas.

The project aims to activate a network of female health workers who will provide basic mother and child services to communities scattered over mountains in Neelum and Muzaffarabad districts, said the agency in a press release.

Merlin will also provide 590 female health workers with medial supplies and kits, it said.

The programme will be launched at a ceremony at the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences on Monday to be followed by a series of two-day workshops for 76 AJK health personnel.

Participants who would be trained on basic nutrition, pregnancy care, and provision of vaccination, disease treatment and family planning would treat patients in their community directly in their homes.

Agency’s country director for Pakistan Yves-Kim Creach said accessible female health workers were vital to the wellbeing of women and children in those areas.

“We are training women with useful knowledge that they can pass back to their community, to leave a long-lasting system of mother and child healthcare in place,” he said.