Health Ministry gets nutrition equipment worth N$1 million to assist children, pregnant women and people living with HIV
The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) handed nutrition equipment valued at N$1 million to the Ministry of Health and Social Services at Windhoek’s Maxuilili Clinic.
The equipment, which consists of 100 body weighing scales, 100 height-measuring boards, 50 food scales and 15,000 special measuring tapes to identify malnutrition were procured by USAID’s Global Health Supply Chain Programme and will be distributed to health facilities.
The equipment will particularly benefit children, pregnant women and people living with HIV, including those who are co-infected with Tuberculosis.
About one year ago, local health facilities received through the programme a donation of therapeutic and supplementary food equivalent to about 6,000 patient-months of treatment, as well as support to integrate therapeutic and supplementary food in the country’s pharmaceutical supply system.
PEPFAR is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative – a comprehensive approach to combating HIV/AIDS around the world.
PEPFAR employs the most diverse prevention, treatment, and care strategy in the world, with an emphasis on transparency and accountability.
In the country PEPFAR is led by the U.S. Ambassador and programmed by an inter-agency management team chaired by the PEPFAR Coordinator that includes USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Peace Corps.
Caption: Bertha Katjivena, Deputy Executive Director in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and Dr. Randy Kolstad, USAID Country Representative, observe how little Rico Murapo’s nutritional status is being evaluated with the help of one of the newly donated special measuring tapes.
