Strength to strength
From the Blog PkColumnist.com: Strength to strength - Typing this in a hurry in the administration department of the Nahaqi hospital just outside Peshawar, I am struck by just how much has changed in the six years since I first visited. Six years ago it was little more than a shell, delivering very basic care to a patient population who used it out of necessity rather than choice. They had less than a thousand outpatients per month passing through their doors. Compare that to today. Between July 2009 and July 2010 they had 78,007. They did 3,134 ultrasound scans and delivered 321 babies in the same period. They saw 19,413 paediatric cases and x-rayed 3,822 people and vaccinated 11,936. Arriving at the hospital this morning (Saturday), the first thing that struck me was just how busy it was. The place was humming with women and children, some of them clearly malnourished and who were queuing for treatment. They were attended by cheerful and helpful staff who obviously knew what they were doing and went about their business quietly and purposely. Somebody had had the forethought to built a shelter over the area where people waited for their chits prior to treatment, the grounds were clean, there was a play area for children and, all in all, the Emergency Satellite Hospital at Nahaqi gave every indication of being in the very best of health. This is one of those quiet successes that may be found all over Pakistan, but rarely make it into the public eye because, other than being a success, they are unremarkable. What is, however, remarkable about the Nahaqi hospital is that it is an example of public-private partnership between an NGO and the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It has not all been plain sailing, and there have been disputes along the way and there will be more. But with a modicum of luck and a fair wind the Nahaqi hospital will continue to serve the population far into the future. The hospital also serves as a resource store for IDPs and flood victims and has actively participated in flood-relief operations. The Abaseen Foundation, a Pakistani-British NGO that supports the work, is now moving to replicate this successful model at the Kabal hospital close to Mingora in Swat. They are already established there and later today we will be moving up the Swat Valley to inspect progress, both at the Kabal hospital and with rehabilitation operations post-flood. Not many goras get into Swat these days. It is still insecure in parts and we will be under the protective eye of the Pakistani army, who will be the guarantors of our safety. Moving further up we will be going to inspect progress on the rebuilding of a water channel at Bartana village in upper Swat, again a collaborative project between Abaseen and local people. All of this is helping people to help themselves, it is not putting money into outstretched hands. It is a process of engagement and dialogue with needy populations and then common ownership of the solution to whatever the presenting problem may be. It is a complex process of engagement with government at a practical and a political level, and it is as good an example as any of how things can be made to work, even in the supposedly failed state that so many see in Pakistan. What is being achieved in a small way in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa can be replicated in other places. Rocket science it is not. Thousands upon thousands of poor, displaced, sick, malnourished and desperate people are all the better today because somebody reached across the cultural divide and built a bridge. Failed state? Nope. . Read Full Post
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