ISLAMABAD-Every year in Pakistan 432,000 children under five years of age lose their lives while 20,000 mothers die due to complications related with pregnancy and child birth, this has been reliably learnt. Among these children, two-third die during the first 28 days of their birth and the rest of them expire largely because of pneumonia (13%) and diarrhoea (11 %). Diarrhoea is a seasonal calamity (number of cases start rising in April and their peak is around July & August each year). About 70,000 children in Pakistan die due to diarrhoea, every year. Most of these precious lives can be saved by simple knowledge about prevention and promotion of some key measures at home and health care seeking practices. To address these issues by raising awareness and strengthening the health system to become more responsive, National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, Ministry of Health is launching the Mother & Child Week, from March 30 to April 4 2009. The partners include ministries of environment and population welfare, National Programmes on EPI, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health; UNICEF, Rural Support Programme Network, Plan International, PAIMAN, and PRIDE. The other two projects are being funded through USAID support. This is one of the key initiatives by Ministry of Health, this year in 29 districts and 5 IDP camps in NWFP with focused awareness and service delivery on maternal, new born and childhealthCare. The week will be focused on nation wide awareness drive in 29 districts reaching around 42 million population, 6.3 million children under-five and 1.4 million pregnant women. In the 5 IDP camps (Jallozai, Kacha Garhi I & II and Khungi, Benazir Complex Mardan), a total of 66,206 population, 9124 children and 1719 pregnant women will benefit from this programme. Around 23,000 Lady Health Workers will be involved in the activity together with vaccinators and health care providers from more than 2000 health facilities. The series of activities during the week include public awareness activities at village and union council level, supplemented by immunization and deworming for children, tetanus toxoid vaccination for pregnant mothers, refresher trainings for health workers, and strengthened public health systems to ensure that Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and other essential supplies are available and correctly used. Each pregnant woman will also receive counselling on recognition of danger signs among mothers and new borns the importance of at least four ANC visits, delivery by a skilled birth attendant, post natal care, early initiation of breast feeding, exclusive breast feeding, immunization of the child and optimal birth spacing. This week starting from tomorrow (30 March) will be focused on prevention of diarrhoea. Besides the use of ORS, continued breast feeding and knowledge about danger signs of dehydration also include in this series. Simple measures such as proper treatment of drinking water and washing of hands with soap can prevent diarrhoea and other communicable diseases. Similarly low cost lavatories can be built where people lack proper sanitation facilities. Ministry of Environment is partnering with Ministry of Health to spread the message of hand washing and proper sanitation practices. Ministry of Population Welfare is also partnering at district level to spread the messages of maternal and child health through their outlets. The Mother & Child Week was piloted in 6 districts in all provinces in 2008 with a focus on prevention of diarrhoea in April and prevention and management of Pneumonia in October with excellent results and hence being scaled up now. Shahid Rao adds from Rawalpindi: The city district government in collaboration with USAID funded Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (PAIMAN) will observe a week from March 30 to April 4 in order to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality in the district. District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi Jamal Mustafa Syed stated this while addressing a press briefing at his office here on Saturday. Executive District Officer (EDO) Health Dr Zafar Iqbal Gondal, Project Director Dr Javed Iqbal, Dr Nuzhat Raffique and others were also present on the occasion. DCO Jamal Mustafa informed that during this week, the mobile teams of Health department would go door-to-door to immunise 153,892 children against different diseases while 543, 148 children would be provided drugs for elimination of worms in intestine and provide basic information to 185,576 mothers about their children better health. He said that more than hundred workers from health, education and local government departments would perform their duties at each union council during this campaign.