Menime and Haat are islands located in the Western Ayod County; these areas have been underserved with basic health care and other services, due to inaccessibility from the mainland of Ayod. There are only two health facilities to serve around 36,993 people: Menime PHCC and Haat PHCU, with poor infrastructure and equipments. The only means of access to the island is either by river (2-3 days) or by air. Air transport also gets challenging, with the onset of rain, as the condition of the airstrips in Haat and Menime are still not very good. In addition to it, communication are challenging because the only radio available is located in Haat administration office.
In 2013 a plague of measles erupts among children under 5 years old. COSV intervened with Mass Measles and Vitamin A campaign in the Island achieved coverage of 79.4%, amidst the logistic challenges of accessing the villages and the children. However, the priority action remained on ensuring vaccination coverage of over 90% required for Herd immunity in any community.
The goal of the project is to re-establish and strengthen basic health care services among the underserved population of the Islands through the support of Primary Health Care System. In particular the project aim at providing basic equipment and related supplies to ensure essential basic curative services; providing drug kits, medical supplies, reproductive health kits, vaccines and related supplies; supporting vaccination campaigns to the vulnerable communities while maintaining the expanded program for immunization; strengthening communicable disease control, prevention, and emergency response capacity including provision of outbreak investigation materials and training of key staff: The project will also improve communication for surveillance by supporting the installation of Radio Call in Menime PHCC as the only PHCC in the Island.
The implementation will have special focus for women and children under 5, being the most vulnerable groups in terms of morbidity and mortality. Women recruitment shall be encourage, especially in reproductive health services and child care.