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AFGHAN REFUGEES PROGRAM (Major Donor UNHCR)
Pakistan has been hosting Afghan Refugees in its homeland since the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the long civil war that followed. The vast majority of this population settled in Afghan refugee camps established by the Government of Pakistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where services including Health had to be provided through the establishment of Basic Health facilities in the refugee camps. After 11 September 2001, another wave of Afghans fled to Pakistan. A significant repatriation operation followed with camps closing with the number of repatriated Afghans amounting to more than 2.25 million with the assistance of UNHCR. Another wave of repatriation also occurred in the year 2016-17.
Despite all that Pakistan is still hosting the world’s largest and most protracted refugee caseload. Recent studies suggest that a population of over 1 million Afghans still remain in KP, out of which about 0.8 million reside in Afghan refugee camps, while the rest live in rural and urban areas of Pakistan.
FPHC has been working for the welfare of Afghan refugees since its inception in collaboration with UNHCR. Over its course of service provision, FPHC has been actively providing quality health services primarily. But along with that, FPHC has also been providing the population residing in the refugee camps with access to formal education, skill training, and career enhancement-oriented programs
Currently, FPHC’s interventions are:
1. Sustainable Health Models.
2. Community Labour Rooms.
3. Community-Based health Care Programme
SUSTAINABLE HEALTH MODELS
As per the new policy of UNHCR, sustainable models of health care provision run by private service providers shall be set up taking the local community on board.
In this regard, FPHC, UNHCR, and the relevant jirga/Health committee will monitor and facilitate the newly established sustainable models in Baraki (27th Dec 2020), Haripur BHU-4 (31st Dec 2020) for increased utilization of the available services.
Active efforts are being made for the establishment of additional sustainable models in other refugee villages.
COMMUNITY LABOUR ROOMS
Frontier Primary Health Care has the distinction of establishing Community Labour rooms in refugee villages of Akora, Haripur BHU-3, Khaki, Gandaf, and Baraki that are run through user’s charges. FPHC is still providing Basic EmONC services to the Afghan refugees in the respective Refugee villages. The services provided at the Community Labour Rooms are:
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Essential obstetric care services & Management of emergencies
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Outpatient consultation (Gyn & Obs.)
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Family planning services & information sharing
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Treatment of STIs/DTDs
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Care for new-born babies
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Vaccination (TT)
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Ultrasonography
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Laboratory
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Pharmacy
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Ambulance Services.
COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH CARE PROGRAMME
In each refugee camp, there are female and male volunteer health workers (CHWs and FHWs). These volunteers are the backbone of community-based health care and serve as a link between the community and FPHC. These volunteers were trained by FPHC long ago, some of them have become inactive either because they have grown old or repatriated to Afghanistan. FPHC maintains the pool of volunteers by training fresh CHWs and FHWs as and when required.
These volunteers played a very active role when this program was in its pomp. Currently, they are working on awareness-raising focused on common infectious diseases in the target population throughout the year. Information regarding major public health and social issues such as HIV AIDS, Gender-based violence (GBV), Drug addiction, personal hygiene, water and sanitation is also a component of the program.
Apart from this component these volunteers identify individuals with ailments and refer them to the nearest available health facility i.e. sustainable model/community labour room or Government health facility. They also provide first aid for minor injuries.
These volunteers have kits from FPHC that are replenished every three months through restocking.
These volunteers are supervised by one male and one female Supervisor. The volunteers hold monthly meetings with their supervisors in which they discuss community health problems. This is how they act as a bridge between FPHC and the community.
In the monthly meetings, the volunteers also receive fresh information on a specific public health issue prevalent in the target community in the given time frame.
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NUTRITION PROGRAMME
FPHC has worked in its target areas on all the components of Primary Health Care (PHC) as suggested in the Policy of comprehensive PHC. For lower and middle-income countries like Pakistan, it is difficult to run comprehensive PHC programs. To bridge this gap, a strategy of selective PHC was adopted which focuses on individual/selected components of PHC. FPHC has worked on Nutrition in different districts of KP and areas of Ex-FATA consisting of supplementary feeding programs, outpatient therapeutic programs, and Infant and young child feeding (IYCF).