Saudi Public Assistance for Pakistan Earthquake Victims (SPAPEV) has provided financial assistance of $1.8 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) for construction of five new basic health units (BHUs) in earthquake affected region of country.
Two BHUs; sponsored by SPAPEV, will soon be completed in Abbottabad and Muzaffarabad while construction of remaining three centres is expected soon, sources said. "Each facility, after completion, would provide primary care facilities to about 60,000 people including children and women," sources added. Around 75 percent of health facilities were destroyed or significantly damaged due to powerful earthquake that jolted northern region of Pakistan on October 8, 2005.
"Even before the earthquake, the health system was very weak," a top Unicef official said while appreciating generosity of the people and government of Saudi Arabia. Unicef, in collaboration with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and its partners, have provided health and nutrition services to an estimated 2.3 million people in six districts of NWFP and AJK.
Meanwhile, as part of a comprehensive reconstruction and rehabilitation programme in earthquake-affected districts, Unicef also supported therapeutic nutrition services to over 25,000 malnourished children and mothers, and provided safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to nearly a million people.