Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada and Presbyterian World Service & Development officially signed an agreement on March 10 that will inject over $4 million in government funding into the church agency’s work in the areas of maternal, newborn and child health in Malawi and Afghanistan.
The program will “build on the strengths” of a previous one, which received $1.5 million in government funding, Karen Bokma, communications coordinator for PWS&D told the Record in an email.
PWS&D’s work in Laghman, Afghanistan, and in three regions of Malawi seeks not only to improve the quality and availability of health services and antenatal care, but to educate women and men, and address some of the pressures that prevent women from accessing health care services.
In the new program, “there is a greater focus being placed on addressing adolescent reproductive health and rights,” Bokma said. “An increase in construction and renovation of maternity units in hospitals and clinics is addressing a rise in community demand for services, which was created through the previous project.”
On the ground, PWS&D partner Community World Service—Asia will coordinate the project in Afghanistan, while Mulanje Mission Hospital and the Livingstonia Synod Heath Department (through the Embangweni Mission Hospital) will implement it in Malawi.
The government-supported project has a total cost of $4.8 million, of which PWS&D will provide about $800,000.
