UNFPA Humanitarian Director visits KPK

PESHAWAR, April 7: Ms. Shoko Arakaki, Director of UNFPA’s Humanitarian Office in Geneva is visiting Pakistan to view UNFPA’s humanitarian interventions, especially for Afghan refugees, around reproductive health and responses to gender-based violence (GBV). As part of her mission, she visited the UNFPA-supported government Basic Health Unit (BHU), Phandu in district Peshawar and interacted with women and girls from Afghan refugee and hosting communities to hear from them on the quality of services provided, the challenges in accessing reproductive health and protection services and solutions they propose. She also met with midwives, psychologists and social mobilizers who are attending deliveries, providing psycho-social support and referrals to GBV survivors and at risk groups, are raising awareness among communities about the available services. Ms. Arakaki appreciated their commitment to serve the women and girls in need in the remote areas. BHU Phandu, which functions 24/7, is one of the eight government health facilities in KP province, where UNFPA, with support of its partner Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), is providing comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care (CEmONC) services and psychosocial support, multi sectoral referrals and community mobilisation services in refugee hosting communities. The BHU receives around 1,600 out patients every month and one delivery is attended every day on average. – NNI