03 February 2010

United States Donates 40 More Ambulances to Pakistan

With 126 ambulances donated, U.S.-Pakistan program flourishes

USAID’s Miriam Lutz, second from left, watches as the Jafferabad executive district officer of health receives a set of ambulance keys.

Washington – The United States has donated 40 more ambulances to health departments in Pakistan as part of an ongoing six-year project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the agency said in a press release.

With the January 30 donations to the district health departments in Dadu, Jafferabad, Vehari and Multan, the United States has now donated 126 ambulances since 2007, USAID’s statement says. The ambulances, state-of-the-art and fully equipped, will help save the lives of those in need of urgent medical care — especially pregnant women and newborns — by providing more rapid access to local health centers, according to the agency’s release.

USAID is partnering with Pakistani officials on the Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (PAIMAN), a $92.8 million project that seeks to build the capacity of existing health systems and create a community-based approach to ensure care for mothers and newborns, according to the statement.

“Access to medical services in emergencies is crucial to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality,” said Miriam Lutz, a USAID health officer who spoke at the January 30 donation ceremony in Lahore. "We hope that this donation will help to protect the lives of mothers and their children in these four districts for years to come."

The ceremony mirrored one from December 22, 2009, when USAID donated 10 ambulances to the Dera Ismail Khan Health Department, according to an agency press release. Throughout 2009, the United States donated ambulances to rural communities in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the statement said.

The ambulances are specially designed and equipped to assist pregnant women and newborns and are being used to transport patients to renovated and re-equipped labor and delivery wards across Pakistan, according to a USAID statement from October 2009. The program also includes training for health department drivers and paramedics operating the ambulances.

The PAIMAN project is also upgrading 34 health facilities in NWFP and eight in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region so they can function round-the-clock, according to USAID.