USAID launches $60m on child spacing programme

ISLAMABAD—The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Wednesday launched for Sindh province its five-year nationwide programme on child spacing.
The 60 million dollar programme ‘Family Advancement for Life and Health’ (FALAH) is aimed at bringing about a major shift in the programmatic approach to family planning - moving from child limiting to child spacing. Kay Anske, Consul General, an official at U.S. Consulate in Karachi said incorporation of child spacing into health programmes will help reduce high levels of maternal and infant illness and deaths that continue to plague Pakistan.
She said the 2007 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey Preliminary report indicates that almost 50 percent of families having one child want to wait for two or more years before having next child. She said FALAH will help such families with child spacing. Operating in 20 districts nationwide, the Sindh component of FALAH includes six districts including Sanghar, Sukkur, Thatta, Ghotki, and Larkana.
Since 2002, the American people through their government have given more than $2 billion dollar to Pakistan to improve economic growth, education, health and governance and to assist with earthquake reconstruction.—Online