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USAID gives $ 50 mln to
Pathfinder Int'l for health projects in Ethiopia |
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ADDIS
ABEBA(July 16,2008) -The U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) has awarded a $50 million cooperative agreement
to U.S.-based Pathfinder International to fund a five-year program
that will make sustainable improvements to key family health services
and planning in Ethiopia, according to a news website Monday.
The project aims at supporting Ethiopia's health extension program,
training outreach workers to make services better and more available
in selected districts at national, regional, district and community
levels to improve maternal, newborn and child health, the report indicated.
"The project will undertake efforts to provide child health services
including immunization, improved access to nutrition and clean water,
vitamin A distribution, treatment of diarrheal disease and pneumonia,
and education on safe birthing practices and newborn care," the
Washington-based USNewswire.com wrote.
It added that the said program would address a lack of family planning
services in Ethiopia--"apparent from the U.S.-based Demographic
and Health Survey, which is widely considered the gold standard"
for health data in Ethiopia and many countries around the world.
According to the USNewswire.com, the survey indicates that the average
Ethiopian man or woman would prefer to have 4.0 children, while the
actual average is 5.4.
Furthermore, 34 percent of married women in Ethiopia want to wait
at least two years between births or stop childbearing entirely, but
are not using contraception.
"The new program will respond to this need by training nurses
and community workers on family planning methods and by offering a
range of contraceptives," the report said.
In addition to supporting better maternal, newborn and child health
across the country, the program also aims to ease population growth
rates, and thereby alleviate the economic strain on Ethiopian families
and a dwindling food supply.
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