With around 160,000 pregnant women and many babies living in shelters across Nepal’s 14 districts worst affected by last month’s earthquake, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is gearing up to provide Maternal Camp Kits.
The kits will help temporarily replace some of the 1,000 health posts, birthing centres and hospitals destroyed or damaged in the quakes. The kits will have separate rooms for male and female patients, consulting rooms, will be solar powered and equipped with reproductive health necessities.
‘The Maternal Camp Kits will be a vital step to ensure that basic health services are restored in the 14 most affected districts,” said WHO in a statement.
The UN organisation is collaborating with the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to deploy the temporary field clinics from next week.
“The Foreign Medical Teams have done a wonderful job but there are only a few of them in each district, which means that the majority of health posts are nonfunctional and patients must travel long distances to reach facilities,” said Frank Paulin WHO’s acting representative in Nepal. “The kits will therefore improve availability and accessibility of health care.”
According to Michel Tomaszek, WHO’s chief in-country logistician, the kits were developed in consultation with District Health Offices and with the experience of previous relief operations. They are tailored to the precise needs of affected areas and populations, especially in the rainy season. “The camps are sturdy enough to face the monsoon and will buy time for the districts until their permanent health facilities are restored,” Tomaszek said.