23m people get family planning, health service from Surjer Hashi clinics

Surjer Hashi (Smiling Sun) clinics provide integrated family planning and health service coverage to 23 million people in both urban and rural areas through 334 clinics and over 9,018 satellite clinic sessions and 66,666 community workers of 26 national non-governmental organisations.
The USAID-DFID partnership complements the government of Bangladesh efforts with the help of ministry of health and family welfare, ministry of local government and rural development, and ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts to reach the poor with high-quality healthcare at low or no cost.
A press release of USAID Bangladesh disclosed this Wednesday on the occasion of the visit of Country Representative of the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID), Sarah Cooke, and the Deputy Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Paul Sabatine, to health clinics in Chittagong under the Smiling Sun network.
It said the USAID and DFID joined together to make quality healthcare more widely available for poor Bangladeshi families through the Smiling Sun network of health clinics. Under this partnership, DFID provided an additional US$ 29 million to USAID's five-year $ 54 million NGO Health Service Delivery Project, through which Smiling Sun clinics are able to reach several million additional people by providing basic health services that focus on improving women's and children's health in urban areas.
The DFID partnership with USAID is part of a larger UK aid urban health programme through which the UK government also supports Marie Stopes Bangladesh and BRAC to extend their maternal and primary health care services to the urban poor. The combined efforts will ensure that more than 1.0 million pregnant women have access to antenatal care services and that almost 200,000 pregnant women will be able to deliver their babies safely with skilled health staff at their side, the press release added.
The UK aid is also supporting the government of Bangladesh's health sector development programme, providing £90 million over 5 years. By working together with government and development partners, more than 500,000 women will be supported by skilled birth assistants and more than 1.3 million use family planning services.
Sarah Cooke said, "Through our urban health program and contribution to the NGO health service delivery project, we want to protect the poorest in Bangladesh from catastrophic health costs. The poorest families must not have to choose between losing all their hard-earned savings, which risks their livelihoods, and losing a family member to a treatable condition. We will be strengthening the coordination between different health service providers in order to create an effective referral system for patients. It is important that they receive the right health care from the right provider, from community outreach services to comprehensive maternal care. Smiling Sun clinics are an important part of that."

smunima@yahoo.com