HHRD Health Program

HHRD has been engaged actively in providing
quality health services to the families affected by disasters, through static and mobile medical units. It responded in 2005 earthquake, 2009 IDPs problem, and during floods 2010, 11, 12 and the earthquake of Awaran and Mashkhel. Healthcare assistance in affected areas continues to fill the gap between demand of services a n d their delivery. Thus a three pronged approach is adopted i.e. Emergency Relief, Recovery & rehabilitation phase and Development phase.

Pakistan, with a population of almost 186 million, is the 6th most populous country on the globe. This huge population lives in 48,363 villages which are a part of 6,137 union councils (UCs) in 142 districts and 7 agencies/tribal regions of Pakistan. Being a developing country, Pakistan faces numerous problems for the prosperity and well being of its huge population. The country lags behind in almost all social indicators as compared to its neighbouring countries. Globally, a set of eight development goals have been formulated to which government is a signatory to provide better living standards to its people. These MDGs were officially set following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. All member states including Pakistan agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. Three goals i.e. MDG 4, 5, and 6 are related to Health. MDG focusses on better health of children, MDG 5 focusses on improvement of maternal health while MDG 6 focusses on reduction in cases of TB, Malaria and HIV Aids,

Mother & Child Health Care Centers (MCHCs):

During year 2014 HHRD Health Program provided Healthcare assistance to women and children through MCHCs established in district Jafferabad, Rajanpur, Kashmore, Mianwali, Nowshera and Islamabad. 33,491 patients were treated in general OPD during this period. As part of antenatal check-ups 3,954 ultrasounds were performed. Qualified and skilled staff is serving community through these MCHCs. In all centers local staff has been deployed. HHRD is playing its role in providing safe deliveries in hygienic conditions through trained birth attendants thus decreasing infant and maternal mortality. Cases are referred to secondary or tertiary healthcare facility if there are signs of complications.

The services provided in these MCHCs include:
Medical consultations
Antenatal care
Postnatal care
Safe delivery services
Vaccination
Health education
Growth monitoring of Pre School children

Adoption of Govt. Health Facility (Civil

Dispensary Sohawan Dhilwan Tehsil Kamoki District Gujranwala.):
Rural Health Dispensary Sohawan Dhilwan which comes under the administrative control of DHO Gujranwala has a catchment population of 24,450 individuals (almost 5,000 families) approximately.

The said village is on the border line of District Gujranwala and Sheikhupura, so Rural Health Dispensary Sohawan Dhilwan is catering for the health needs of certain population from District Sheikhupura as well. This is immediate relief for the people of Sohawan, Manget, Jabboki, Chakian, Mirzapur, Kalun Kalan, Guchali Virkaan, Chak Warriach, Dera Bajwa and Malikpur.

HHRD has adopted this dispensary and will be repairing and renovating the whole structure. It also includes construction of a toilet and bore hole for regular supply of water. Electrification as well as woodwork is also part of the project. Moreover, an LHV will be provided to strengthen the MCH services in the dispensary.

HHRD after successful completion will hand over the setup to district government.
Tharparkar Health Relief Project 2014;

Due to failure of monsoon rains since 2013 people of District Tharparkar are continuously suffering from severe shortage of food, fodder and water. This has directly affected health status of pregnant women, newborn, babies and young infants. Every month several infants and children are dying. HHRD has tried to mitigate the sufferings of the people through its Mobile Medical Unit during January and December 2014. 9,804 patients provided healthcare assistance in far-flung areas of Diplo and Mitthi. Majority of patients who received healthcare assistance comprise of women and children. Moreover health education sessions were carried out to prevent communicable diseases like diarrhoea, malaria, pneumonia and TB, 1,424 people attended these sessions.
Training of Traditional Birth Attendants

HHRD organized a National Level conference “Save Mother Save Future” in November 2013 on improvement of Maternal Health. Conference focused on MDG 5 (Improving maternal health) to avoid maternal deaths due to pregnancy related problems. Maternal Mortality ratio is very high and Pakistan stands third in the international community. One of the paras of the communique i.e. para 3 highlights the crucial role of traditional birth attendants and emphasizes their training and deployment in community. Similarly another para 6 of the communique emphasizes the importance of having skilled maternal healthcare and more specifically the importance of having skilled birth attendance. During year 2014 HHRD identified 55 Traditional Birth Attendants from the rural community of District Jafferabad and Rajanpur. These TBAs were trained through public private partnership with the support of District Health Departments of the above mentioned two districts. They have been deployed in their own community to ensure safe and healthy deliveries in accordance with the new knowledge they learned during their training. They will keep liaison with the MCH center of HHRD in these two districts.
Similar trainings will be offered in Mianwali, Nowshera and Mityari during 2015.

Ambulance Service:

16 ambulances are providing emergency and referral services in different parts of the country. Out of 16, 11 ambulances are directly supervised by HHRD. While 5 are with the partner organizations. In year 2014 they provided services to 2,214 patients. Patients of emergent nature were transported to tertiary care hospitals in different parts of the country. This ensured their timely and proper treatment.


Adopt a Patient:

Zafar Iqbal, a resident of Mianwali, is suffering from chronic renal failure. He is a young man of 31 years. He is on dialysis for the past one year at DHQ Hospital Mianwali. Although, the dialysis is free of cost, he has to bear the expenses of medication and tubing. As his family is very poor and there isn’t anyone to bear his treatment expenses, HHRD is paying his treatment cost.

Prevention of Blindness:

500 poor patients suffering from cataract were operated free of cost during 2014 in D.I.Khan, Bahawalpur, Bhimber and Jaranwala. Majority of these patients comprised of women of old age. These surgeries were carried out in partnership with Mehmood Eye Hospital (D.I.Khan), Khan Eye (Trust) Hospital (Bahawalpur) and Prevention of Blindness Trust (Lahore).

Mobile Medical Units:

HHRD’s immediate response to any disaster is through its mobile medical units. During year 2014 two mobile medical units have been providing healthcare assistance through mobile medical camps in District Tharparkar, District Bannu and several districts of Punjab. Mobile Medical Camp is of great help to reduce avoidable morbidity and mortality in disaster struck areas.

Community Health & Hygiene:

Prevention is better than cure, based on this principle MCHCs conducted health and hygiene sessions for pregnant and lactating women and other girls of reproductive age. Topics were identified based on weekly and monthly OPD and prevalence of different diseases. In light of this sessions were arranged that benefited 2,370 women directly.
It is believed that good hygiene education program provides information and understanding about behaviour changes which bring timely health benefit. Hygiene education means helping individuals, families and communities to become aware of the links between poor hygiene behaviour and disease. It also means encouraging and helping people to improve those behaviours which, if changed, will lead to the greatest reduction in disease. At the level of households and communities hygiene education will help people to find ways of improving their sanitation by designing and constructing their unimproved facilities.