PESHAWAR – Participants at a consultative dialogue have urged the policy makers and legislators to take prompt steps for delivery of better health services to adolescent girls and mother, and urged for considering it a separate target group in the health and population welfare programs. They stressed the need for special consideration on young girls and women through the responsibilities of the lady health workers (LHWs) and Community Midwives, adding it should also be made mandatory for paramedical staff to get special training in this regard.
The dialogue was organized by Rahnuma Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP) in collaboration with the Research and Advocacy Fund (RAF) under the Maternal and Neonatal Health (MNH) & Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Policy and Practice for Marginalized Adolescent Girls and Young Mothers (AIMS) program here at local hotel on Wednesday.
On the occasion, Director, Rahnuma, Amna Akhsheed, Vice President, Haji Sattar Gul, Programme Manager, Sohail Iqbal, Coordinator Yasrab Nazir were present.
Director Rahnuma whiling explaining the aim and objective of the dialogue, said that the RAF sponsored advocacy initiative aims at plugging the policy and practice gaps at national, provincial and district levels for addressing the sexual and reproductive health issues of young women, by mobilizing the policy makers and stakeholders. She viewed that the elected representatives had a great responsibility to take proactive steps for addressing the key issues of health. Yasrab Nazir informed that FPAP’s AIMS Project, had already started the individual and group consultation process with Parliamentarians, Government departments, Civil Society Organizations, Media and community Influential in all the four provinces with very encouraging response from every sector.
The Programme Manager informed that the total population was covered by 60 per cent adolescent and young people in the country, out of which around 27 million were females. The basic needs of adolescent girls and young mothers have been completely neglected at the policy levels leading to worst social indicators in the South Asian region, low female literacy, high infant mortality rate, high maternal mortality rate, low Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR).