This document discusses maternal and child health initiatives at Aga Khan University. It outlines AKU's focus on improving maternal and child health through various programs, including training health workers, research on effective interventions, and partnerships with organizations like Rotary International. AKU aims to address critical shortages in healthcare workers and build capacity to improve conditions for mothers and children in developing countries.

1. Maternal & Child Health
Reaching the Unreached
Anita K. M. Zaidi
Professor and Chair of Pediatrics and Child Health

2. Aga Khan University
An International University

3. Aga Khan University
Focus on Health & Education, Extending to Arts & Sciences
• Aga Khan University Hospitals
• School of Nursing and Midwifery
• Medical College
• Institute for Educational Development
• Institute for the Study of Muslim
Civilisations
• Aga Khan University Examination Board
• Faculty of Arts and Sciences
 Women’s Advancement
 Maternal and Child Health
 Early Childhood Development
 Problem-Based Research
 Quality Education

4. Part of a Development Network:
Aga Khan Development Network
• Working in 30 countries
• 80,000 employees
• Focusing on health,
education, culture,
rural and economic
development
• Creating leaders and
local capacity
Dedicated to improving living conditions and opportunities for the poor, without
regard to faith, origin or gender

5. Maternal & Child Survival Status, 2011
Maternal Mortality Ratio
Under 5 Child
Mortality Ratio
Source: IHME (Lancet 2011)

6. Maternal & Child Health
- A Major Focus at AKU
“First, the University will build
on its strengths in maternal
and child health. Its research
into problems which strike the
most vulnerable of God’s
people, is carrying it toward
the goal I have as Chancellor:
that the Aga Khan University
should be one of the world
resources in health problems
of mothers and children, and
that its work on these
problems will be on the
frontiers of knowledge.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
AKU Convocation 1989

7. Reaching the Unreached
Addressing
Key Challenges
in Maternal
and
Child Health

8. Critical Shortages in 57 Countries

9. Nurses & Midwives Play a Critical Role

10. AKU’s Innovative Hala Project
with Government Lady Health Workers
Training Lady Health Workers reduced perinatal
mortality by 20% in rural Sindh, Pakistan

11. Pakistan: Short Training for Women Workers Goes Far
in Saving Newborns’ Lives
January 24, 2011
A new study suggests that “lady health
workers,” as Pakistan calls them — women
trained as part of a government program to
give care to poor people in rural areas —
can make a difference in saving the lives of
newborns.
Researchers from Aga Khan University in
Karachi followed almost 50,000 households
in two health districts for two years. The
areas where the women were assigned to
work had 21 percent stillbirths and 15
percent fewer newborn deaths than in
other areas. That success was achieved
even though the health workers generally
had only 10th-grade education and one
extra week of training for the project.

12. Simple Technologies Can Save Lives
Application of chlorhexidine, provided in clean delivery kits, reduced newborn
deaths by 40 per cent in the poorest district of Sindh
(Source: Lancet 2012)

13. Centre of Excellence
- Women & Child Health -
Mission
To provide a platform for
improving maternal and child
health by a sustained focus on
human capacity development,
clinical services and research
that serve the needs of
women and children in
developing Asian and African
countries

14. What We Aim To Do
• Training health care
professionals to provide
leadership at all levels of the
health care system
• Utilizing appropriate models for
clinical care and planning for
national, regional and global
policy in maternal and child
health
• Conducting cutting edge research
to promote effective
interventions as well as probing
the frontiers of knowledge

15. Rotary International & Aga Khan University:
A Strategic Partnership
Focus on Maternal & Child Health
in East Africa
• Training nurse educators
– Rotarian-led Vocational
Training Teams
• Scholarships and mentorship for
nursing and midwifery students
• Partnering to improve the
quality of life of mothers and
children
Nigerian Vocational Training Team
District 9110
Kampala, Uganda
March 1, 2012

16. Rotary Scholars at Aga Khan University
“I hope to improve maternal and
child health in my community by
being a role model to the
community members, health
educators, and mothers. Providing
proper maternal care, delivery
and post natal care, lobbying for
maternal health issues from the
district. Ensuring that every child
before one year is immunized….”
Nigerian Vocational Training Team
- Awor Josephine from District 9110
2012 Rotary Scholar Kampala, Uganda
Kampala, Uganda March 1, 2012
2012 Kenyan Rotary Scholars, Nairobi, Kenya

17. Rotary Humanitarian Trust &
AKU in Pakistan
• Funding life-saving cardiac
surgery for children of families
who cannot afford expensive
surgery for congenital heart
defects
• Financial support committed
for 2012 by the Rotary
Humanitarian Trust, Pakistan
Chapter for surgery for 20
children at the state-of-the-art
Aga Khan University Hospital
in Karachi

18. Rotary International & Aga Khan University
Working Together

19. Help Us Reach the Unreached
Improve the Lives of Mothers and Their Children
Visit AKU at Booth 407

20. Anita K. M. Zaidi
Professor and Chair of Paediatrics
and Child Health