Healthcare
Bringing sustainable improvements in healthcare to vulnerable groups
Despite unprecedented advances in global health, citizens of the developing world continue to suffer from entirely preventable diseases. In parts of Asia and Africa, malaria and tuberculosis and the HIV/AIDS pandemic kill tens of thousands, threatening economic productivity and social stability.
Aga Khan Foundation of Canada (AKFC)-supported health programs work to bring sustainable improvements in health care to vulnerable groups - those in remote areas, women of childbearing age and very young children.
Multi-pronged approach
AKFC seeks to strengthen professional health care systems with a multi-pronged approach:
- Primary health care programs target preventative and curative health services, water and sanitation, offering people the knowledge and skills to prevent illness;
- Improve the skills of front-line health care providers; and
- Enable community organizations to improve their capacity to finance and manage their own health services.
How a new generation of nurses is changing the face of healthcare throughout Asia and Africa...
Nursing has traditionally had a low status in Pakistan creating deterrents to enter the profession. A long-term approach was taken to bring about the desired changes in attitudes towards the profession. Since 1979, McMaster University's School of Nursing, based in Hamilton, Ontario, has been working with AKFC to develop faculty and programs for Aga Khan University's School of Nursing. In 1988, the AKU launched the first university-based nursing program in Pakistan; McMaster-educated nurses filled many of the faculty roles in the new program.
