National Health Management Information System (HMIS) Pakistan in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Pakistan arranged a “Dissemination Workshop” recently in Islamabad. The Workshop was held to discuss the findings of Mother & Child Week (MCW) Coverage Survey Report.
Dr. Rasheed Jooma, Director General Health, Ministry of Health, Islamabad speaking as the Chief Guest on the occasion stressed the need of addressing the issues of non-covered areas where the Survey could not be carried out.
He said that reaching such areas is a challenge due to poor infrastructure and development indicators like education, health and poor access to services. He also stressed the need to organize different activities for social and health awareness in these areas.
Recalling the recent flood, he said that it clearly shows the issues of poverty and vulnerability in our country. He recommended that flood affected families must avoid pregnancies as it will add to their adversities .The issue of nutrition is also very important because a Pakistani child already suffers the burden of undernourishment.
We should modify our services according to the circumstances related to the flood. Our target district list needs to be revised to maximally incorporate flood affected areas, he added.
It is our duty to ensure that all the resources and assets that we have should be diverted and expended on this marginalized and poor people.
Dr. Mohamed Cisse, Chief, Health & Nutrition, UNICEF Pakistan in his comments said that MCW is a great initiative and UNICEF is working towards systematic integration and evaluation of MCW in order to know what we have achieved, and learn what improvements we can make for the future.
There is need to develop systematic coordination among different levels. He expressed his gratitude to HMIS for this study. He assured full collaboration of UNICEF and other UN partners in the program.
Dr. Samia Rizwan, Health Specialist, UNICEF-Pakistan in her remarks said that there is a need to improve our analysis. This Survey has given us a road map to follow in future. There are gaps which need to be plugged.
Saqib Saleem, Joint Secretary Ministry of Environment, congratulated Mursalin and his team on conducting such a comprehensive survey. He said that this survey is diverse and it gives us the real picture of what is happening in Mother and Child health.
Dr. Iqbal Ahmed Lehri, National Coordinator, National Program for Family Planning & Primary Health Care shared the objectives of the Workshop. He said that we must share post-evaluation of the survey report of MCW as evaluation of the activities are essential to assist the impact of interventions and to know whether we have achieved the required results or not.
The purpose of this evaluation was to record the achievements of MCW and also to recognize the deficiencies so that those could be addressed for future interventions and better results. He appreciated the efforts of HMIS team in conducting the survey and appreciated the contribution of UNICEF.
Dr. S. M. Mursalin, National Coordinator, HMIS/Disease Surveillance discussed the methodology and key findings of the survey in detail. Two reports were presented, first of November 2009 survey and second of April 2010 which was conducted in more than 90 districts.
He said that the purposed of conducting the Survey was actually in two parts i.e. first is for actual activity and interventions of MCW and second is to document change in the knowledge and attitude and practice of mother, based on MCW specially of MCW indicators.
He said that four key interventions were done in MCW including overall vaccination, TT vaccination, health education and D-worming tablets. Survey methodology was 30 x 7 cluster sampling method was used meaning from each district 30 villages were selected and from each village 7 households were selected. A total of 60 districts were surveyed and from each district 210 mothers were interviewed. In total, 12600 mothers were interviewed. 1800 villages Survey were conducted by 360 numerators.
Out of 60 districts, 18 were from Punjab, 15 from Sindh, 12 from KPK, 11 from Balochistan and 4 from ICT & AJK area.
The data stated that BCG coverage was estimated to be 84% among the children, 57% received only TT vaccination, 69% children received D-worming tablet, 62% mothers reported attending health education session, 39% mothers received advocacy leaflets and 37% had a post natal visit.
Earlier, the Workshop was followed by an open discussion by provincial teams in which they gave their comments on how to join hands for the betterment of mother and child health.
In the end, Vote of Thanks was given by Dr. S. M. Mursalin.