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Pakistan

AAI Pakistan sitrep 7 Feb 2006

AAI ACTIVITIES PER PROGRAM AREA:

1. REVITALIZATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE FACILITIES

AAI health teams have visited the following health facilities in Haveli Tehsil providing direct bedside supervision, teaching in clinical practice, and direct support to health care providers:

- Gugdar
- Khursidabad
- Pallangi
- Soli
- Tungari
- Degwar
- Badhal Sharif
- Bhatakot

Access to certain health facilities remains limited secondary to weather and road conditions.

AAI team members are also investigating breastfeeding and weaning-food practices from all mothers who present to health facilities.

For a summary of findings, click on Appendix 1, Summary of Clinic Visits .

In addition, AAI teams are educating health care providers at facilities in the following topics : hypertension, diabetes, universal precautions, hypothermia, scabies, diagnosis and treatment of paediatric ARI, and sterile technique for injection.

Through the generous donation of chlorine tablets by Colonel Habib , Pakistan Military Hospital , Bagh, AAI team members have promoting safe water usage and hygiene education to all health facilities visited, including THQ Hospital Kahuta.

AAI team members were poised to assist and facilitate the WHO/UNICEF/DHO Polio Campaign beginning 24 th January. However, as Haveli Tehsil was not included in this polio round per WHO, AAI staff continued normal daily operations instead of polio immunization monitoring and supervision.

AAI supported and monitored the Polio Campaign in Haveli on February 3 rd , 4 th , and 6 th . AAI thanks Mr. Aslam, Asst Superintendent Vaccination, and Mr. Farooq Mir, Vaccine Inspector in Charge, greatly for their cooperation in these activities.

AAI has signed an MOU with UNICEF to implement a family hygiene program in Haveli Tehsil and already received the first donation of family hygiene kits. AAI will send a team member to attend the UNICEF meeting regarding hygiene promotion in early February. This AAI team member will then implement hygiene education in the field utilizing Lady Health Worker Supervisors and Lady Health Workers. At the completion of hygiene training done at health facilities, community members will then receive one UNICEF hygiene kit per family. AAI thanks Mr. Julian Parker for his assistance and cooperation in this program.

AAI will facilitate the distribution of blankets donated by WHO and UNICEF to ADHO, Haveli Tehsil. These blankets will be given to various primary health facilities throughout the area.

2. DISEASE SURVEILLANCE/EDUCATION & TRAINING

AAI successfully training programs in Surveillance and Reporting of WHO Notifiable Diseases. The beneficiaries were many levels of DHO health care staff. Assessments of knowledge were made by pre-test and post-test questions. Assessments of further training needs were completed by final evaluations. Overall, these training sessions have been met by overwhelming approval and desire for more.

Please refer to the following for complete details:

- Appendix 2: 19 January 2006

- Appendix 3: 24 January 2005

- Appendix 4: 28 January 2006

3. COMMUNITY HEALTH

AAI has created community education materials on hypothermia, frostbite, and scabies, diabetes, hypertension, and universal precautions. These are being distributed through the Shelter and Health Programs, through DHO facilities, and through DHO health facility staff. In addition, these materials have been shared with WHO and UNICEF to utilize and further distribute.

AAI has implemented a school hygiene education program , targeting the following schools in the Kahuta area: government girls' school (1), government boys' school (1), government girls' college (1), government boys' college (1), and private co-ed primary schools (4). This program includes didactic curriculum as well a contest in the creation of artistic posters to be used as further teaching tools.

- Between 25 th -26 th January , AAI team members completed hygiene education at Mehood Memorial Public Model Secondary School . A total of 191 students , including 117 boys and 74 girls, aged 4-16 years completed the hygiene teaching and created their own hygiene education posters for display and use.

- One notable achievement was that even after the first day of hygiene teaching, which includes waste management and environmental health, new colourfully-designed wastebaskets were seen in the school facility and were immediately being used.

Neena Rohs , MD MSTPH
Country Medical Director

4. EMERGENCY SHELTER PROGRAM

AAI successfully completed the IRAS shelter program this week, 7 Feb 2006 . The IRAS shelter program has consisted of supplying and distributing approximately thirteen hundred emergency shelters to homeless families. 450 IRAS shelter kits were distributed to individual families during this week through the assistance of the Pakistan Military. This distribution was the final phase of AAI 's emergency shelter program which has concentrated on filling the gaps for families whom have missed out on previous rounds of emergency shelter distribution. AAI would like to thank Captains' Cheema and Imran for identifying needy families and arranging the distribution and monitoring of the emergency shelter kits. Furthermore, with the assistance of Captain Imran's men from the 21 st Sind Regiment of the Pakistan Military, AAI masons built ten IRAS's for vulnerable families all consisting of female headed households.

As the weather in Kashmir is greatly improving and most needy families have received some type of emergency shelter AAI have decided to finish the IRAS emergency shelter program. The program has been a great success and AAI would like to thank the IRAS designers, Mr Umar Iqbal Khan and Mr Hammad Husain , who are the IRAS designers and provided the first round of operational support to ensure that AAI could get IRAS's out to homeless families living at high altitude before the onset of the Kashmir winter. AAI would also like to thank all members of the Pakistan Military that assisted and supported the program. Lastly we would like to thank the AAI family which consisted of many volunteers (Jim Thynne, Gordon Willcock, David Wegman, John Weil, and Jim Judge) all from Australia contributing their own time and money to come out and help get shelters to homeless families in Kashmir.

Frank Tyler
Director of Operations

A. AAI SUPPORTED HEALTH FACILITIES

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