U.S. Partners With Health Care Providers

December 6, 2010

Islamabad - The U.S. is working with Pakistani health care providers to expand understanding of family planning. The Health Office Director at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Janet Paz-Castillo, announced on Monday the launch of an e-learning training package about family planning and the spacing of births and pregnancies in families.

The training package consists of three compact discs which contain information on the concept of the healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, videos on effective counseling skills, the prevention of infection and it also provides faculty members with specialized information to help strengthen their teaching skills.

The package was developed under the USAID-funded Family Advancement for Life and Health (FALAH) project.  It is intended for use at nursing, medical, public health and midwifery schools across Pakistan.

"This new approach to health care training will make learning about family planning more interesting and more effective for both students and faculty," Castillo said. "I'm confident that by the end of their study, health care students will be better-equipped to provide basic services to a population much in need of them."

Pakistan is one of the top ten most populous countries in the world: its population tops 172 million, with an annual growth of almost two percent (almost 3.5 million).