Mother & Child Health Care (MCH) Centre (1996)

The communities of Kawardu did not have access to medical facilities particularly for women, infants and children. Before the construction of a hanging bridge between Kawardu and Skardu, it used to take three – four hours to reach Skardu depending on the availability of the local private transport. The local communities did not have the financial capacity to hire a private Jeep to take their pregnant women, mothers of new-born and infants to the hospital in Skardu in emergency cases. The result was a high rate of mother and child mortality.

GRACE Association Pakistan designed a project on building the access of mothers and children to curative and preventive heath care services. The project aimed at providing mother and child health care services to 3500 female population and enhancing the access of communities to reproductive health and family planning services. It has resulted in the availability and access of maternity services to women of the 16 villages of Kwardu Union Council District Skardu. GAP’s members were the leading and managing team.

Total cost of the project was PKR 14,00,000. Project was supported by Kfw Germany. The contribution of the donor is PKR 12,00,000. Project is being managed sustainably by the organization in collaboration with the district health department government of Pakistan. This centre provides a meeting place with Lady Health Visitors and Lady Health Workers. Referal Services are also being provided to the needy wormen in implementing very effective and sustainable projects through community participation and by building partnership with external agencies. It established its project cycle management procedures for execution and delivery (leading and controlling the projects) i.e. financial management, human resource management, communication, managing procurements, internal and external evaluation, etc. which have been standardized over a period of last 15 years of launching and managing micro-development projects at grassroots level. This experience has led to the organizational growth and development.