KAMPALA, Uganda – The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA in Uganda has handed reproductive health supplies and equipment worth more than $770,000 to the Government of Uganda in an effort to improve maternal and newborn health.
“The provision of this equipment is a significant action towards saving the lives of mothers and their babies in this country. Let us ensure that the equipment is at the right place, at the right time and in the right hands to help deliver critical care,” said UNFPA Uganda Country Representative Esperance Fundira. She made the handover to the Minister of Health, Elioda Tumwesigye, at a UN warehouse at Nalukolongo, south of the capital city of Kampala, on June 29.
The items form part of the assistance that UNFPA provides the Government of Uganda to enhance delivery and access to reproductive health services. They included delivery beds, delivery sets, hospital beds, Caesarean sets, stretchers, screens, wheelchairs, operating tables, theatre lights, anaesthetic equipment, sterilizing units, foetal heart monitors, new-born resuscitation equipment, infant incubators, long-acting family planning sets and post-abortion care sets.
A total of 95 health centres in the eight districts of Gulu, Arua, Napak, Nakapiripirit, Bundibudyo, Abim, Amudat and Kitgum will benefit from this support.
“Ensuring that every woman has access to a skilled, well-equipped and motivated midwife or doctor before, during and after her pregnancy and most importantly at childbirth is the surest way for us to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity,” Ms. Fundira said.
Government committed to reducing maternal deaths
 UNFPA Uganda Country Representative Esperance Fundira (left) hands the equipment over to Uganda's Health Minister, Elioda Tumwesigye, in support of maternal health in Uganda. |
Mr. Tumwesigye acknowledged UNFPA’s continued support to improving maternal health in Uganda and reiterated the Government’s commitment to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity. It was an injustice that mothers died from pregnancy and childbirth: “It is a thorn in the flesh that a woman in the process of giving life ends her own life instead,” he said. “The Government of Uganda is committed to ensuring that every delivery is a happy one.”
He emphasized the need to accelerate efforts to end teenage pregnancy, one of the main causes of maternal deaths in Uganda. “People should become pregnant by choice and not by chance. Expectant mothers should also attend all recommended antenatal checkups and deliver at a health centre,” he said.
Ms. Fundira applauded the Government for progress being made in the country to improve the lives and quality of health care at all levels, as well as the work being done to save the lives of mothers and babies. She also highlighted work on implementation of the Sharpened One Plan for maternal and newborn health and the Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan.
UNFPA is to support the distribution of the new equipment to the respective districts, hospitals and health centres.
