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Sub-Regional Training Course/ Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (FSM Information Service): April 15, 1997 - A one-week training course is being conducted at the FSM Central Facilities in Palikir, Pohnpei entitled "Safe Motherhood and reproductive Health," April 14 to the 27^th, aiming to strengthen the provision of reproductive health services through training of health workers and through the conduct of research activities, according to a release from the Department of Health Services.

The training has been organized and supported by the Regional research and Training Center in reproductive Health (RTRC) of Fiji School of Medicine. The Center Director, Dr. Wame Baravilala and his colleagues are in Pohnpei this week to give support to the training.

About 35 health care workers from five countries in the Micronesian Sub-region are taking part in the training. The countries include the Republics of Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru, and the four states of the FSM, Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap.

Major issues to be addressed in the course include: promoting maternal health through ensuring safe pregnancy and delivery, neonatal care, the treatment and prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases, adolescent reproductive health, family planing operational research in reproductive health, and other safe motherhood initiatives. Facilitators of the course include senior personnel of the Pohnpei Department of Health and staff of the Regional Training and Research Center. Dr. Rajat Gyaneshwar, an Obstetrician/ Gynecologist from the Liverpool Hospital in Sydney, Australia is the Training Consultant.

The training course is being organized by the RTRC in conjunction with the Department of Health in Pohnpei. The RTRC is a regional project of the Fiji School of Medicine whose goal is to assist the implementation of reproductive health programs in the Pacific regional through training of professional health workers and assisting them to carry out operational research in their own country situations. The RTRC is funded by UNFPA and is located in Suva, Fiji.

A similar sub-regional training course was conducted in Honiara in the Solomon Islands in March this year, and one is being planned for the Polynesian countries to be held in September this year.