TİKA Provided Support to Newborn Health in Pakistan

5 new technology hearing screening devices to be used in the newborn department were provided to 5 hospitals operating in Sindh province, Pakistan, by Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA).

Carried out by TİKA, in the scope of the Maternal and Child Health Support Program (MCHSP), the screening devices were introduced to hundreds of healthcare professionals in more than ten different healthcare organizations on 13-14, June 2023. Theoretical and practical trainings in hearing screening were given by the experts from Türkiye.

Sindh Provincial Health Ministry Parliamentary Secretary on Health, Muhammad Qasim Soomro; Vice Consul General of the Republic of Türkiye in Karachi, Oğuz Kozanlı; TİKA’s Coordinator in Karachi, Halil İbrahim Başaran; officials of the Koohi Goth Hospital, academicians, NGO representatives and healthcare providers attended the opening ceremony of the training program held by the cooperation of TİKA and Koohi Goth Women's Hospital.

Giving a speech at the ceremony, Parliamentary Secretary Soomro stated that the government of Sindh carried out plenty of projects in the healthcare sector and, among those projects, they are negotiating with TİKA for the children’s hospital, planned to be built in Sindh. Thanking Türkiye, particularizing TİKA for their projects in the health sector, Soomro said that the hearing screening devices provided by TİKA will contribute significantly to the early diagnosis of newborn hearing impairment in Pakistan.

Karachi Vice Consul General, Kozanlı drew attention in his speech to the fact that the projects held by TİKA will make a significant contribution to the relations between the two countries. Kozanlı reflected that the technology transfer project in the hearing screening field will be essential for the posterity of Pakistan.

TİKA’s Coordinator in Karachi, Başaran, mentioned that each of the projects TİKA conducted with their two offices in Pakistan contributed to the brotherly relationship between Türkiye and Pakistan and that they will continue to create more projects to strengthen this relationship.

After the speeches, the devices provided by TİKA were delivered to the officials of the Koohi Goth Hospital, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Al-Mustafa Hospital, and Alhidmat Hospital, where approximately 50 thousand births took place. Hearing screening devices facilitate the early diagnosis of the newborn’s hearing impairments.

Nearly 700 projects in 13 years

Development projects in the healthcare sector account for 80% of the nearly 700 development projects of TİKA in Pakistan since 2010. Particularly in the construction process and equipment requirements of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Hospital in Muzaffergarh, with training programs in healthcare in addition to providing operating rooms, mobile clinics, and medical equipment in numerous hospitals, TİKA continues to support the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan in healthcare as well as other areas.