Executive Committee (Honarary)

Prof. Dure Samin Akram Chairperson

Associate Prof. S.K Kausar Vice President

Dr.Fehmina Arif General Secretary

Gul Rukh Nency Joint Secretary

Associate Prof. Neel Kanth Treasurer

Members of the Board

Mr. Fareed Khan

Hilda Saeed

Ms. Rabia Khan

Ms. Reema Jaffery

Management:

Senior Program Manager Dr. Yasmeen Suleman

Program Manager Dr. Amara Shakeel

Editorial Board:

Dr. Yasmeen Suleman

Ms. Hilda Saeed

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is celebrated worldwide every year from 1st to 7th August to

encourage breastfeeding and improve health of babies around the world. Breastfeeding has a huge

impact on child survival, growth and development. Evidence shows that exclusively breastfed for 6

months and continued breastfeeding till one year can lead to 13% reduction of deaths in children under

five. The WBW 2016 theme is about how breastfeeding is a key element in getting us to think about how

to value our wellbeing from the start of life and how to respect each other and care for the world we

share.

Like each year HELP this year too HELP celebrated the World Breastfeeding Week by organizing a variety

of activities to engage and collaborate with a wide range of actors around promotion, protection and

support of breastfeeding.

Community awareness programs were held at various health centres of HELP as well as in its

communities.

A large number of mothers, other household caretakers and health care personnel participated in these

programs. Participants were stressed on the importance of breast feeding. Dr. Amara Shakeel and Dr.

Gulrukh Nency from HELP conducted the program and responded to the queries of the participants

A similar program was held in Village Charnore Tharparkar where Prof D.S Akram and Ms Ishrat and Dr.

Amara Shakeel participated and conducted the sessions

Dr. D.S. Akram speaking at a seminar on Breastfeeding

Organized by Nutrition Support program SIndh

Seminar on Universal Health Coverage

On Thursday the 15th of December, HELP organized a seminar on “HEALTH FOR ALL” to mark the 3rd

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. The purpose of the seminar was to create awareness and

establish the importance of UHC for sustainable development and advocate to the stakeholders and

Government to adopt UHC as their health priority.

After the recitation of Holy Qur’an and objective sharing with participants, two members from local

communities were invited on stage to share their personal experiences and struggles for Health

coverage. One of the community members, a health worker, explained how her husband remained

unwell for several years and she spent all of her income on his healthcare expenditures, so much so that

she could no longer afford to send her son to school and her son had no choice but to drop out of

school. The second community member shared the difficulties she faced at various local hospitals, both

private-sector and public-sector for her husband’s treatment who eventually passed away due to lack of

healthcare. Their experiences highlighted the plight of the under-privileged members of the community

when it came to health coverage and underlined the far-reaching consequences of inadequate health

care.

HELP’s Program Manager, Dr. Amara Shakeel spoke on Universal Health Coverage and its Background.

She gave a detailed overview of how UHC has emerged as an important healthcare objective.

Professor, Dr. D.S. Akram, talked about the Role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in UHC.

Ms. Rehana Memon, Secretary Development, Planning and Development Department, Government of

Sindh and the special guest on the occasion shared government’s perspective, recounting the steps

taken by the government and pledging to continue working to improve healthcare for the poor and

vulnerable.

Chief Guest, Mr. Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, a Member of Parliament emphasized that UHC is of paramount

importance for the present government. He promised his support for health related activities to

organizations and participants of the seminar.

An open discussion followed. The audience participated actively and put forth their views in terms of

both opportunities and challenges in achieving UHC in Pakistan. The seminar ended on a positive note as

all members of the audience were of the view that, with the right approach, planning and accountability,

UHC was an achievable target for Pakistan.

Free Medical Camp on the Occasion of UHC 2016

On the occasion of the third Universal Health Coverage Day, HELP organised a medical camp at its MCH

Centre in Gadap Town Karachi. Free health check-ups, vaccinations and lab tests were provided to the

patients.

In collaboration with Hashmani's, free eye check-ups and cataract surgeries were also performed. More

than 700 patients were served!

‘Effective Management of Malnourished Children Using Electronic and Mobile Phone Technologies’

To contribute towards strengthening of the Health Services System (HSS) pertaining to the CMAM

programme, HELP with funding from DFID and in collaboration with Palladium implemented a one year

project in four Union Councils of District Bhakkar, Punjab

The objectives of the project were to improve the process of identification and referral of malnourished

children to fixed CMAM sites, increase attendance rate at the fixed CMAM sites,

reduce defaulter rate and improve timeliness of reporting and reliability of CMAM data. This was

achieved using mhealth and ehealth technologies. A special software was designed and developed for

this purpose.

The project was highly successful and we were able to increase the referral of children by LHWs by 130%

and the attendance at the fixed CMAM sites by 140%.

Annual General Body Meeting:

The General Body meeting of HELP was held on 24th December 2016, at HELP Neelum Health Centre,

Zamzama Boulevard, Karachi. Dr. Yasmeen Suleman, Senior Program Manager HELP, presented Annual

programmatic report. Annual financial report was presented by Mr. Abdul Majid. Details of both reports

were discussed at the meeting. The members reviewed ongoing projects and set targets for the future.

Various committees including research, audit and fundraising committees gave their update. tElections

were held for the office bearers of HELP for the period 2013-2015.

Field visit of students from Fatimiyah Nursing School.

A group of students from Fatimiyah Nursing School, Karachi visited field site of HELP in Union Council 5,

Gadap Town Karachi. They also visited HELP MCH centre in Khuda Ki Basti in the same Union Council.

The purpose of their visit was to develop their capacity to assist poor and less advantaged sections of

communities’ focusing on primary health care of mothers and children.

A workshop for HCP was held on 18th July 2016, HELP Training centre in Gadap Town Karachi. The

purpose of workshop was to train HCP to counsel and support mothers to carry out recommended

feeding practices for their infants and young children. It was conducted by Dr. Gulrukh Nencey a senior

consultant in lactation management and Dr Amara Shakeel

World Immunization Week 2016

Despite years of efforts by EPI and the Government, the coverage of routine vaccination of children and

women in Pakistan remains low. Additionally a huge number of children suffer from malnutrition;

together both significantly contribute towards the alarmingly high rate of morbidity and mortality in

children under 5 years of age.

World Immunization Week held every year from 24-30 April, indicates Global efforts to accelerate action

to increase awareness and demand for immunization by communities, and improve vaccination delivery

services. This year’s campaign focused on closing the immunization gap and reaching equity in

immunization levels as outlined in the Global Vaccine Action Plan.

HELP celebrated World Immunization week by organizing a variety of activities at its target communities

in Karachi

‘UN Maternal and Child Nutrition Stunting Program’

Pakistan suffers from some of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world with a National

stunting prevalence of 43.7% among children under five. In 1994, the prevalence of stunting

was 36.3% whilst it increased to 43.4% across Pakistan and 49.8% in Sindh by 2011. Chronic

malnutrition or stunting is associated with suboptimal brain development, which is likely to

have long-lasting harmful consequences on cognitive ability, school performance and future

earnings. This in turn affects the developmental potential of nations.

To prevent stunting in children, HELP, with support from UNICEF and USAID is implementing

‘UN Maternal and Child Nutrition Stunting Program’ in District Nowshero Feroz.

The focus of the program is on changing knowledge, attitude and practices of the community

particularly the mothers and other household caretaker through behavior change

communication. Through the program HELP will reach 50,000 pregnant and lactating women in

the District and not only provide them with Micronutrient supplement but will also give them

awareness on maternal, infant and young children’s diet.

Micronutrients are also being provided to children. Screening of the 69,000 children under 2

years is being done for malnutrition to identify children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

Children with SAM are provided Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (Food) as well as other

nutrients. Twice yearly de-worming of the children is also part of this program.

HELP School for Girls, Chachro

Through generous support of friends, HELP has been able to setup a pre-primary school for girls aged 5-

8 years. The response of the community has been overwhelming; 36 female students are currently

enrolled and more are on the waiting list.

The enthusiasm of the students to learn and attend school is heartening to see and has encouraged

HELP to upgrade the school to include higher classes.