UN improving rural health facilities

Tasma is a pilot village where the UN inter-agency project "Stronger Voices for Reproductive Health" is working to improve healthcare in rural areas. "We live very far from the district centre and during winter it is impossible to get there. Now we have a maternity hospital where 14 women have already given birth and a place to buy medicine here, thanks to the UN Population Fund [UNFPA]," said Baktygul Chotorova, a midwife working in Tasma village, 60 km from Karakol city, capital of the northeastern Kyrgyz province of Issykkul. The project is led by UNFPA and supported by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It focuses on reproductive and sexual health in rural areas where such services are very rarely found. "The project is aimed at changing the mentality of people concerning reproductive and sexual health. One of the core components of the project is increasing communication between healthcare providers and people through social mobilisation," Alessandra Pellizzeri, UNFPA project manager, said. "During the Soviet time, healthcare was based on treatment, not prevention and the strengthening of healthcare. Now we are trying to change this system and we are closely cooperating with local governments and NGOs, as well as community-based organisations," Pellizzeri explained. The initial phase of the project began in pilot villages in the Tup and Issyk-Ata districts in Issykkul province from June 2004. The second phase included training of both healthcare providers and users with particular focus on women and youth and the establishment of resource centres. Already seven pharmacies have been opened, in addition to several medical centres, with one maternity hospital having been rebuilt. The overall budget of the project is about US $360,000 per year. "When our "sovhoz" [communal state farm] building was sold in 1994 we did not have any medical equipment. In 2004, the local school gave us a room and we received technical assistance from UNFPA. Now we have gynaecological equipment, basic medical facilities and people are very happy to come here," Damira Aldayarova, a registered nurse at the rural clinic in Chong-Toguzbai village, said. In addition to providing technical and financial assistance, the project conducts health education sessions for local people on reproductive and sexual health. Then locals who have received training go on to share their knowledge with schoolchildren. About 450 people have been trained to date. "I teach an extra-curricular class on the sexual health and hygiene of youth and I see that the youth are now interested to get such knowledge. And it is important, because our children need a reliable source of information," Oroz Sadybaev, a teacher at the local school in Tasma village, said. "It is necessary to have such lectures. It helps us to understand how to be protected from different diseases such as HIV/AIDS, syphilis and others. It is very useful concerning our health," 17-year-old Akylbek said, after attending a class on how HIV/AIDS is transmitted. Pellizzeri is optimistic about the project's future. "People have to change their mentality, they have to understand that health is in their hands and that they can change things themselves," she said.