Launch to mark beginning of huge project to improve mother and child healthcare in UzbekistanTASHKENT, Uzbekistan - 27 October 2008 The Government of Uzbekistan together with UNICEF and the European Commission has officially launched a new landmark project in which hundreds of thousands of mothers and children across Uzbekistan will directly benefit from improved maternal and child health care. H.E. Mr. Feruz Nazirov, the Minister of Health opened the meeting, which was also attended by the group of the EU ambassadors and Mahboob Shareef, UNICEF Representative. “As a result of the project, more then 8,000 medical workers will be trained across the country, which will lead to subsequent improvement of mother and child care in every province of the country,” said Feruz Nazirov at a press launch, which took place in international business center in Tashkent. He expressed appreciation to the EC representatives and confirmed the ministry’s firm commitment to achieve the objectives of the project. The official agreement on project was sealed between the Government of Uzbekistan (GoU), the European Commission (EC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on July 16th 2008. During the last three months all partnering organizations were tuning the project’s activities to the best needs of the country. The project, with the budget almost 6 million US$, where EC is providing 5.5 million US$ (3.5 million Euros) and UNICEF 450 thousands US$ (300 thousands Euro) is aimed at improvement of healthcare staff’s skills in emergency care during childbirth, plus newborn and childcare in maternity wards, polyclinics and primary healthcare facilities across the nation. Mahboob Shareef, introducing key project details, said that: “Mothers, the newborn and children represent the well being of society and meeting their needs is best investment for the prosperous future of the whole of society. Very soon many more of Uzbekistan’s children will be offered the safe start in life that every child needs and deserves’”. The challenge is to ensure children have access to a continuum of health care, backed by strong national health systems. “The EC is delighted to be part of this groundbreaking program, with many thousands of mothers and children set to directly benefit. This is fully in-line with our developing relationship with Uzbekistan and it highlights our firm commitment to development in this country and the Central Asian region,” said Hugues Pernet, the Ambassador of France to Uzbekistan. Also speaking at the launch, he highlighted the partners’ appreciation of the ministry’s leadership in development and launching the Mother and Child project. Note for editors: The GoU, EC and UNICEF are now expanding these evidence based successes across another eight of Uzbekistan’s fourteen regions.
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