Healthy Women, Healthy Families: “Shustha Ma, Shustha Poribar”

Healthy Women, Healthy Families: “Shustha Ma, Shustha Poribar”

Overview

The complexity of delivering maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and family planning (FP) services in the urban slums of Tongi is exacerbated by Bangladesh’s deep gender inequities; high rates of adolescent fertility; low levels of reproductive health knowledge; and poor quality and uptake of health services, especially among young people. The Healthy Women, Healthy Families project (“Shustha Ma, Shustha Poribar” in Bangla) aims to provide services that will improve the quality, acceptability, and accessibility of care for young women and children in Tongi; improve birth spacing; and provide evidence to inform future models of care in Bangladesh.

With a dynamic group of partners, including BRAC, Scope, and the Population Council, we are leading the three-year project to increase utilization and improve quality of MNCH and FP services in the Tongi, Gazipur City Corporation, near Dhaka. We are co-designing, implementing, and evaluating a program for young women and their partners experiencing their first pregnancy. This work is being done in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, which share responsibility for urban health in Bangladesh.

The adaptive approach, co-designed with young women and health workers, will complement existing facility-based care with a community platform and social support services to provide women with access to critical health information and peer support while helping them develop life skills. This program will improve both the clinical quality and the experience of antenatal and postnatal care, newborn and infant health and nutrition, and planning for healthy birth spacing.

Dr. Farzana Islam

Project Director

Project Contact

Dr. Farzana Islam has more than 15 years of experience planning, designing, and implementing public health projects with a focus on maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health; health systems strengthening and capacity building. Dr. Islam served as the Project Director for a USAID-funded project on performance improvement for community health workers and the five-year MaMoni Health Systems Strengthening project in Bangladesh. In addition to her expertise as a master trainer, team leader, and program developer, she also has many years of experience working in partnership with government stakeholders and managing multi-partner projects. Dr. Islam is a medical graduate and holds a master’s degree in public health.

Donors & Partners

Donors

Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies

Partners

BRAC

Scope

Population Council