Tanzania: Extension of Support for Childhood Centres
Posted on :Saturday , 15th July 2017
Support for activities of Early Childhood Health Centers established several years ago in Tanga City under cooperation betweentheTanga City Council and a South Korean NGO, United Help for International Children (UHIC) has been extended.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two sides in Tanga recently the three centers, known as U -Centers, the UHIC will continue to operate the three centers at Pongwe Health Center, Mikanjuni Health Center and Mafuriko Dispensary to improve the health of the children less than five years of age.
The total cost of the project would be USD 50,000 which would be raised by UHIC for the period of 2017 to 2018. Out of that, medicine supply for the three centers has been set at USD 2,400 every month.
"TheUHIC will supplythemedmedmed ical goods and nutrition recipe for pregnant women and children," said the UHIC Director, Ms Lee Kwiwoon.
She revealed that this agreement is the fourth MoU that has been signed between the two sides since 2013 when the three U- Centers were established under the Keepers Project that aims at protecting the health of children-less than five years.
The three centers, Ms Kwiwoon said, have been successfully operated in accordance with the third MoU signed by both parties, TCC and UHIC in 2014. "UHIC is willing to run the U-Centers continually and improve the management of U-Centers with the support of the City Council," Ms Kwiwoon pointed out.
She disclosed that UHIC would like to increase medicine support to children and extend business for maternity protection. Ms Kwiwoon explained that the UHIC whose mission is to help children in need all over the world will run the UCenters as an integrated approach to child health that focuses onthewell-being ofthechildren.
"One oftheprimary aims of this MoU is to runtheU-Centers for better health for the children undertheage of 5 years by priding free medical treatment and nutrition and preventing the top ten diseases including malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and acute respiratory infection," she said.
According to the project document, the UHIC will run the centers in partnership with the Government health fa cilities and flow thehealth policy guidelines on Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP IV).
The document says thattheUHIC will run, manage and supervise work of the UCenters and is also responsible for medicine cost for the children undertheage of 5 years and medical materials for pregnant women inthethree centers.
Tanga City Council would be responsible for supplying health workers, including doc tors and nurses, provisions of wards, observation rooms, drug storehouses, offices and any other necessity that may arise there from.TheTCC will also support UHIC administratively ad in legal matters.
The project aims at setting new standards or efficient and effective child illness prevention program in the two districts apart from contributing to reducing the mortality rate of underfive children in remote rural area in Tanga.
The MoU sets plans for sustaining the program even afafaf ter the withdrawal of the UHIC support. The concept of the U-Center, according to the information made available, originates from a desire by the UHIC to develop and install an organized system where they put children's lives as their best interest.
Through experience, the UHIC had been searching plans and programs to increase the sustainability of the project establishments. Based on this experience, the UHIC has been conducting a more developed work-out plan in Africa since 2011.
"The UHIC goes to remote areas in order to save children's lives. It helps 20,000 children yearly intheTanzanian child health care centers," said Seyong Shin, the UHIC Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Shin said that the UHIC found that there were too many children suffering through diseases that could easily be prevented. The CEO said that in the year 2012, 6.6million children around the world undertheage of five died.
He said that after an analysis of their deaths, it was discovered that 17 percent died of pneumonia while seven percent had malaria. "Diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria can be effectively treated and prevented, but every year 2.17 million are losing their lives," said Seyong.
According the UHIC, 45 percent of the reasons for children under the age of five getting diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea is related to malnutrition. "So we can effectively lower the death rate just providing nutrition and vaccination that is sanitary and sufficient.
Also chemically treated mosquito nets can lower the death rate by 20 percent," the UHIC has proved. U-Centers treat and provide medicines to children, apart from checking the weight of children, distributing powdered milk for underweight children.
The centers also provided health hygiene education forthemother and children who visit the Center apart from distributing and monitoring chemically treated mosquito nets for prevention of malaria.
The program also constructed medical incineration plants along with bathrooms that do not overflow duringtherainy season.
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