Press release

Iraq. AICS and UPP still standing by the people of Mosul

The fourth phase of the "Salamtak" (Your Health) programme, financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP) and the French Solidarités International, has kicked off. The intervention aims to ensure access to quality health and hospital services for families in the Nineveh Plain.

Rome, 5 December 2022 - Phase IV of "Salamtak" (Your Health), a multi-year mental, reproductive and maternal and child health programme funded by theItalian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP) and French Solidarités International, was launched today in Iraq. The programme, launched in 2018, was created to respond to the needs of the Iraqi population returned to the Nineveh Plain after the ousting of Isis and in particular to the city of Mosul, the former Iraqi capital of the self-proclaimed Caliphate.

New in this 4th phase, whose actions will involve 3 public hospitals, 2 primary health centres and a health centre, is the introduction of an additional focus on proper management of medical waste and ensuring access to safe water. The aim of the project is to improve the living conditions of vulnerable communities in the Nineveh Governorate also with a view to preventing communicable and non-communicable diseases. The services to ensure sexual, reproductive and maternal and child health will be concentrated in the Bashiqa Health Centre and in the primary health centres of Hermat (west Mosul) and Hammam Al Alil (south Mosul) , where a new 24/7 maternal and child health unit will be set up with four doctors and four midwives and an ambulance service that is always operational for obstetric and neonatal emergencies.

Mental health and psychological support services will be offered in the Bashiqa Centre and the Hermat Primary Health Centre, with psychologists employed to conduct individual and group sessions with local people. In the Al Hurok hospital (west Mosul), on the other hand , two emergency rooms (one for women and one for men) will be set up dedicated to burns, another plague afflicting the local population due to the numerous unexploded ordnance and mines.

In order to contribute to the prevention of communicable diseases, particularly related to maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, Un Ponte Per and Solidarités International will conduct awareness-raising sessions in schools in the communities around the health facilities concerned.

More than 8,000 people will benefit from the health services, while 83 medical and paramedical staff members will be directly involved in training and capacity building activities.

Finally, the Batol and Al Jumhori hospitals, both in West Mosul, will see a rehabilitation of their water facilities to reduce the risks of wastewater disposal, and a new system of proper chemical and medical waste management will be inaugurated.

"Salamtak IV" is part of a broader framework of interventions and specialised services that UPP, thanks to the valuable support of AICS, has been carrying out in Iraq, and in particular in the Nineveh Plain and Mosul, since the beginning of the humanitarian emergency in 2014.