Quaker Peace & Social Witness Relief Grant awarded

The project for which we have been awarded funds is the Kabal Hospital in Swat Valley and the following report describes the project in detail. In August 2008, a first military operation was launched by the Government of Pakistan against the Taliban forces in Bajaur agency and Swat district. This resulted in a first displacement of approximately 556,000 people, fleeing to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). After the collapse of the peace deal in early part of 2009, the government had no choice but to respond to the situation by army action leading to mass exodus of people from Swat, Dir and Buner. As a result of effective military action in district Swat millions of initially displaced people returned to their homes but unrest in the FATA and other areas is ongoing.

In July 2010 the conflict affected district Swat had another unfortunate flood disaster where infrastructure was damaged, health facilities destroyed and health services disrupted. The already overburdened and resource constraint health facilities are trying it utmost to provide  health including MNCH services, but there are gaps which need to be filled for provision of quality services.

Pakistan’s Maternal and Child Health indicators remain extremely poor. Every year 25,000 to 30,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and child birth. Millions more suffer ill health and disability. One million children die before the age of 5 while 16,000 die in the first month after birth. Pakistan is fully committed to the ICPD Goals and Targets 1994, as well as Millennium Development Declaration 2000. The Government of Pakistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) identifies revival of economic growth and reduction of poverty as the twin challenges for Pakistan, and reaffirms its commitment to improve public service delivery through structural and programmatic reforms as a key strategy for achieving the MDGs.

Government of the Khyber Pukhatunhawa has provided a network of health facilities of different categories all around the province to provide primary, secondary, tertiary and state of the art services to the 23 million population of the province. The Primary Level Health Facilities (FHLFs) are situated near the communities but due to number of reasons it is not providing the intended services. The insufficient staffing, inadequate buildings, staff absenteeism, unprofessional attitudes, lack of trust by the community, lack of equipment and medicines, and lack of supervision is few of the chronic problems affecting the effective health care deliveries.

The successful completion of the army and return of the masses to their homes are the welcome outcomes but once again the health needs of the communities became an issue. The Health Cluster Partners including the Government has adopted an approach of emergency relief and many partners has started their activities in the health facilities to provide the much needed help to the needy communities but lately many organization has pulled out of the conflict affected areas for one or the other reasons. This short term approach has dealt with the issue of medicine provision but has ignored the chronic long standing issues of insufficient staffing, inadequate building, staff absenteeism, unprofessional attitudes, lack of trust of community, lack of equipment and lack of supervision.

The Department of Health has requested that the Abaseen Foudnation take over the hospital and transform it as they have done at Nahaqi Hospital. UNICEF has provided funds to support the development of the Mother and Child facilities at the hospital and the Abaseen Foundation UK continue to seek to raise funds from funding application and through general fundraising events.

The £6,000 per year for three years will contribute towards the cost of:

1. Much needed equipment for the hospital including operating theatre equipment, anaesthetic machine, X Ray machine, laboratory equipment, dental equipment.
2. Free drugs for the extremely poor people who visit the hospital. The Government supply only a small amount of a restricted supply of drugs and many people who come cannot afford to buy the drugs that they need. At Nahaqi Hospital the Abaseen Foundation UK raised funds for free drugs which as well as benefiting the people who needed the drugs this also created a strong relationship and engagement with the community which leads to trust and confidence in the hospital which in turn helps to engage the community in preventive health e.g. the community develop confidence to allow the women to be admitted to the hospital for the safe delivery of their babies.