Japan helps improve reproductive health

Yesterday 13-07, at the Ministry of Health, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Vietnam Fumio Kikuchi and Vice Chairman of Nghe An Hoang Ky Provincial People's Committee signed an agreement to increase the strength of the project. Community-based reproductive health care (RH) force.

(Photo: discovernikkei)

This project has been implemented for three years to improve the management capacity of the Center for Reproductive Health Care and other relevant organizations in Nghe An in inter-provincial training, to help employees take care of reproductive health at health facilities. localities have skills and knowledge to promote clean and safe delivery services.

From June 1997 to May 5, 2000, Phase I of the JICA project was implemented in eight districts of Nghe An province. The project focuses on promoting the delivery of clean and safe delivery services at the commune level through activities such as strengthening prenatal care, improving the knowledge and qualifications of midwives and lifters. level of facilities and equipment.

Following the success of phase I, phase II of the project continued to be implemented in 5 years (9-2000 to 8-2005), on the scale of Nghe An province, including 19 districts and towns with different ways approach as in phase I.

At the same time, the project focuses on quality of reproductive health care services to meet the increasing needs of people. The project activities have also been expanded such as strengthening postpartum care, prevention of reproductive tract infections, reducing abortion rates and strengthening health management information systems.

Results after two phases of implementation show that many indicators of reproductive health of Nghe An have improved markedly. The average number of visits to antenatal care of pregnant women increased from three times in 1999 to 3.3 in 2004 in the delta regions, and from 2.2 times to 2.8 times in the mountainous areas; the proportion of mothers and infants who were visited at home after birth increased from 66.4% in 2000 to 85.4% in 2004.

The Ministry of Health considers Nghe An to be a model for promoting reproductive health, and wishes to share the experiences of Nghe An to a wider scope to improve the reproductive health quality of the whole country. In order to support this desire, JICA decided to implement a follow-up project for the four neighboring provinces of Ha Nam, Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh and Ha Tinh. Nghe An Center for Reproductive Health Care, together with other relevant agencies, train trainers from four provinces under the supervision and guidance of the Ministry of Health. After that, these trainers will train staff to do reproductive health work at the local level.

QUANG THIEN