Visitors

Family Welfare Minister Applauds SIFPSA Mr. Ahmad Hasan, Minister for Family Welfare, Government of Uttar Pradesh got a flavour of SIFPSA activities on 28 January, 2004, when he visited a number of SIFPSA supported projects in Sultanpur district. The day long programme included visits to a pradhan sammelan, an NGO organized immunization camp, a swasthya mela at the village level and a colourful folk performance in a village to propagate messages related to health and family planning.

At the pradhan sammelan the minister exhorted the elected village headmen and women to take a lead in ensuring that immunization and spacing services were available at their sub-centres and the doctors and ANMs visited the villages regularly. He took keen interest in the immunization, infection prevention measures and other services being offered at the village level NGO health camp and was highly appreciative of SIFPSA's efforts in incorporating these elements into the programme. The travelling swasthya mela "Chal Haat Haat" had a huge turnout of women who jostled at the various stalls that offered spacing contraceptives, medicines, health and counselling services alongside fun and interactive games. He distributed prizes for various contests held during the course of the mela.

Mr. Hasan's visit concluded on a vibrant note with SIFPSA organizing a folkshow at village Sindorva. Engaging magic & qawwali performances interspersed with health and family welfare messages left the audience mesmerized and won kudos from the minister.

Mr. Fredricke Schieck, Deputy Administrator, USAID, Washington D.C. visited a Community Health Centre (CHC) at Sidhauli, Sitapur district to observe the variety of services being offered at a public sector facility. The trip enabled him to interact with various providers at the CHC and observe quality improvement measures like renovation of the operation theatre, infection prevention equipment and counselling material available there.

On the way, he also had an opportunity of seeing a number of roadside non-conventional outlets like grocery stores, general merchants in villages and obtaining feedback on their experience of marketing contraceptives, under the SIFPSA funded project being implemented by Hindustan Latex Limited.

In January, 2004, SIFPSA had the privilege of welcoming Duff Gillespie, Visiting Scholar, Packard Foundation, to its office in Lucknow. Mr. Gillespie, as the head of the Global Bureau of USAID in Washington D.C., was involved in the planning and initial funding of the IFPS Project being implemented by SIFPSA. In his own words, "The SIFPSA project is one of the largest, longest and most complex in the history of USAID". Mr. J.S. Deepak, Executive Director, SIFPSA presented the innovations, impacts and the best practices evolved under the IFPS Project which are making a difference in the RCH sector in Uttar Pradesh.

Mr. Gillespie's opinion about SIFPSA: "The first thing that impressed me is the close working relationship between the Government of UP and SIFPSA's NGOs. Something that was hard to imagine 10 years ago. However, nothing prepared me for the overall commitment, community involvement and decentralization of priority decision making, exemplified, but not restricted to, the District Action Plan. Other noteworthy things are the general professionalism of nearly everyone I met and a well developed MIS. I was impressed."