Both women and children constitute two-thirds of the population and are among the most vulnerable groups of the society as far as the health issues are concerned, Director General of NWFP Health Services Dr Fazal Mahmood said.
“Children are prone to respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases coupled with malnutrition and poor sanitation facilities prevailing in the country,” he maintained. The director general said these conditions accounted for three-fourth of mortality of the children.
“The health of the child-bearing women holds importance for them and their children” he asserted, adding the group was suffering due to socio-economic conditions and inadequate primary health care services. He said this while addressing an orientation workshop arranged jointly by Provincial Health Department, Lady Health Workers (LHW) Programme and Unicef in Peshawar to chalk out an operational plan for successful implementation of Mother and Child Health Week (M&CHW).
The week will be observed in four districts of the province, including Mardan, Mansehra, Nowshera and Swabi and in IDPs camps from March 30 to April 4,2009 with an aim to reduce the alarming rate of mothers and child mortality by improving status of the maternal and child health in the target districts.
Referring to the scheduled M&CHW, the Health director general said that during this activity, health education sessions would be conducted to bring behavioural change to improve health condition of mothers and children.
He lauded the donor agencies and welfare bodies for supporting the department in improving mother and child health facilities. Appreciating the LHW Programme for its tremendous inputs in the scheduled M&CH week, he ordered health workers to fully cooperate in effective implementation of the activity.
Elaborating salient features of M&CHW, Dr. Ihsanullah Turabi, Provincial Coordinator LHW Programme, said the activity would be cost-effective and multi-intervention service delivery package that was planned to involve all stakeholder to address issues of the maternal and child health.