In May 2017 UNFPA with the Pakistan Humanitarian Pooled Fund (PHPF) began supporting the FATA Health Department and its field units in Kurram Agency, helping two overburdened health facilities in Sadda and Alizai lower Kurram to provide female health workers with reproductive health supplies, safe delivery kits and new-born baby kits.
The goal of the project is to increase the access of women and girl returnees to critical time sensitive reproductive health services and information. This includes services such as skilled deployment and training of skilled birth attendants, basic emergency obstetric care, birth spacing, psychosocial support services and medical referrals. Women with complicated obstetric cases were referred to the Government and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) health facilities.
During the emergency situation in Kurram Agency, the Tehsil Headquarter Hospital and many basic health units were partially or completely destroyed. Some 41,000 families have returned to hilly areas with little or no transport facilities nor access to healthcare services.
Transport issues
This lack of transport nearly had severe consequences for fifteen-year-old Bibi Razia, who begun suffering from terrible pains during her pregnancy. Her family were struggling to find transport to take her to the hospital. When she finally reached the health team in Sadda, she could deliver her baby with the help of qualified and skilled birth attendants at an equipped health facility, all for free. Undoubtedly, Bibi now sees the importance of post-natal care: she and her baby regularly attend the health facility for check-ups.
The health facilities are working towards raising the awareness of women and girls like Bibi about the importance of ante and post-natal care, family planning, as well as other reproductive health services. At the Sadda health facility, lady health visitors (LHVs) and midwives have been recruited and assigned to deliver maternal health and family planning needs. One innovation has been the introduction of psychologists and protection officers within the maternity units of the two hospitals, to assist those women and girls who need psychosocial support, counselling or referrals to specialised services.