Provision of integrated primary health care, nutrition and MHPSS services through health sub-centers for hard-to-reach communities in targeted areas of Herat and Ghazni provinces. Through this allocation, AADA aims at improving access of people and provision of doorstep integrated health and nutrition services in underserved areas of Herat and Ghazni provinces.

In this project, AADA will target remote, underserved areas by establishing six  Health Sub Centers (HSCs) in hard to reach locations of Farsi Adraskan, Shindand, Gulran, and Kushk-e-Kuhna districts of Herat and five HSCs in hard to reach locations of Qarabagh, Jaghori, Malistan and Moqur districts of Ghazni. The action will also support/maintain a previously MoPH funded BHC in Qarabghi area of Ghazni city. All planned HSCs are considered in locations with a minimum distance of 23 KM from the nearest HFs to provide needed primary health-care (PHC) services in line with Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) and IMAM guidelines as follow: 

Reproductive health care services include antenatal care (ANC), institutional delivery, postnatal care (PNC), family planning child health activities including Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI), immunization, communicable disease prevention and treatment, response to communicable disease outbreaks, basic mental health screening and psychosocial counselling and referrals to health facilities.

Under the nutrition component, the HSCs will provide Infant amp Young Child Feeding (IYCF), growth monitoring and delivery of IMAM  services to acutely malnourished boys and girls (6 to 59 months) and pregnant and lactating women.
The proposed HSCs will be established and equipped in rented buildings in pre-identified villages by the provincial public coordination committee (PHCC), which the adjacent village communities can easily access, except for the Qarabghi BHC in Ghazni city and one HSC location in Jaghori district those have their own buildings. The HSCs/BHC staffing will be in line with BPHS with the addition of one male staff as a nutrition supply distributor/community mobilizer. All the recruited staff will undergo initial and refresher basic training as per the MoPH guidelines and requirements for the project.

The project will provide integrated health and nutrition services to an estimated direct beneficiaries of 159,651 (41,324 men, 82,728 women, 17,505 boys, 18,094 girls) living in remote areas of Herat and Ghazni provinces.

The project interventions/services will be coordinated and linked with the existing BPHS health facilities currently run by AADA in Herat and Ghazni, to avoid duplication and enjoy bilateral referral services. The project has been designed in agreed way and consultation with Public Health Directorates (PPHDs) and in line with PHCC recommendation. 

The overall action is based on humanitarian principles of neutrality/impartiality, and addresses cross cutting issues such as gender mainstreaming in delivery of health care. In this project AADA will pay full consideration to gender empowerment and will include females as at least 50% of staff in the HSCs. The project implementation will be carried out in close coordination with the Provincial Public Health Directorates (PPHDs), regional health cluster, and other stakeholders including communities .