The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), supported by UNICEF, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has launched a maternity in the Health Clinic of Lemonade. The maternity will have a capacity for 600 deliveries a year.

"As Ministry of Health, I have a mission to ensure and improve the living conditions of the Haitian people. It also means enable all segments of the Haitian population to have access to health care", said Dr. Florence Guillaume Duperval, Minister of Health.

"The opening of this unity will save the lives of pregnant women but also their children," said for his part, the UNICEF representative in Haiti, Edouard Beigbeder.

UNICEF, in collaboration with UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services), has rehabilitated six maternity units in three departments: Artibonite, North and Northwest. By choosing to deliver their children in a heath centre, many women avoid complications related to childbirth, which helps to reduce both maternal and neonatal mortality in the region. "It is necessary that the most vulnerable people have access to such services, especially in remote areas," added the UNICEF representative.

The maternity in Lemonade’s health clinic is part of a joint project funded by CIDA with several goals: to strengthen the capacity of maternity services; provide quality maternity services; rehabilitate existing clinics in targeted areas; and improve community interventions through community mobilization. The maternal mortality rate in Haiti is one of the highest in the world. In rural areas, only 25% of women deliver in health facilities, others usually do at home.

HL/ HaitiLibre