Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR (AJK): Three days Capacity-building Training—Infection Prevention and Standard Precautionary Measures to avert threat of the COVID-19 attack began in Azad Jammu Kashmir’s metropolis on Wednesday.
AJK minister for Population Welfare and Information Technology Dr. Mustafa Bashir inaugurated the conference which would last till June 05. SoP laid down for Covid-19 along with ensuring disin-fection of venue on daily basis will continued to be strictly followed in the conference in letter and spirit, organizers underlined.
While inaugurating the conference, AJK minister for population welfare and information technology Dr. Mustafa Bashir said that the Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan-led Govt. of Azad Jam-mu & Kashmir was very much cognizant to the global challenges, emerged as a result of Covid -19 pandemic.
He said “the AJK government is closely monitoring the unprecedented pressure on our health in-frastructure, nevertheless, healthcare providers are being and shall be provided with personal pro-tection and they shall not be left at the mercy of the pandemic, he added.
The minister focused for observing SoPs for the safety of people as well as health providers.
“The State Population Welfare Department of Azad Jammu Kashmir government moved to host the grand event in collaboration with the federal ministry of National Health Service ( NHSR&C) , Govt. of Pakistan, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)and Jhpiego Pakistan—an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University and working to respond COVID-19 emergency by strengthening capacity of existing health and population workforce en-gaged in emergency response and routine service delivery”, said Raja M Razaq Khan, Secretary Population Welfare Department of AJK in his introductory remarks at the inau-gural session of the moot, being attended by the local and foreign experts to contribute their respective input to avert threat of the spread of the pandemic.
Razaq said that the host organizations moved to hold the grand conference after realizing a serious need to acquire ability and expertise in continuity of uninterrupted service delivery in population and health sectors in new normal scenario.
He added that his AJK Population Welfare Department planned the three day training activity primarily aimed at to enhance the capacity building of our Medical Consultants, Medical Practition-ers and paramedics etc. on Infection Prevention and Standard Precautionary Measures Regarding COVID-19 as per the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) envisioned standards.
“As we understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have a profound im-pact on the lives of people across the globe, as well as health and social systems, and national economies. Importantly, this upheaval has brought extreme multiple pressures on our health sys-tem while apart from provision of uninterrupted healthcare service, the safety of healthcare pro-vides itself has emerged as a serious challenge”, the Secretary Population Welfare Department of AJK underlined.
“Similarly, the pandemic has also entailed critical impacts on access to family planning (FP) infor-mation and services, as well as reproductive health more broadly. Likewise, for women, FP is crit-ical, basic healthcare while despite this disruption, the need for FP will not change. More crucially, the pregnant woman, at this critical juncture, are the most vulnerable those are lacking medical cares. In the given compelling scenario, as health systems continue to shift to prevent and treat people with Covid-19, it is equally essential to protect access to reproductive health services on war footings”, Razaq added.
Highlighting the salient features of the grand capacity building conference, Raja Razaq said that the event involved the training of master trainers, health managers and service providers in three separate day-long sessions. The eligible trainees include service providers, managers from the directorate of the State Health Department and Population Welfare department who could trickle down the training, administrators and the service providers of high case load facilities of both of the above two departments of Health and Population Welfare, he added.
Besides the chief guest – the AJK Population Welfare minister Dr. Mustafa Bashir and the the sea-soned experts from both from Health and Population Welfare Departments, Secretary population welfare Raja Muhammad Razzaque and Maj Gen Tahir Sardar, Secretary Health will join to share their respective input addressing the training participants at all three separate day long sessions.
Dr. Fauzia Assad, Country Director, Jhpiego Pakistan – an affiliate of John Hopkin University – will join as resource person. Ms. Lina Musa, Country Representative UNFPA Pakistan, will also speak to participants virtually, according to the schedule of the 3-day training program.
It is pertinent to mention here that this UNFPA funded program is meant for emergency response being implemented across the country for capacity building i.e. Trainings of Master Trainers, Health Managers and Healthcare service providers on the subject.