With the health project 'Salamtak' ('Your Health') we have been working since 2018. We launched it in Iraq, in the Governorate of Nineveh, to strengthen and empower the Iraqi health system.

This is an area that has paid a very high price in recent years of war: militarily occupied by Daesh, it has experienced years of violence, destruction, conflict.

After the liberation from Daesh, we were among the first to return to the Mosul area. To rebuild from the rubble, and continue to walk alongside the population.

With "Salamtak" in these years, we have managed to guarantee mental health support and reproductive health services to thousands of people: women, children, displaced families who are still struggling to return to the liberated areas, even though they are often still in rubble. Areas where everything is lacking: above all, health facilities that can guarantee the right to health to the local population.

And it is within the framework of "Salamtak", implemented together with Solidarités International in coordination with the Iraqi government, that in recent weeks a new maternity ward was officially inaugurated in the Hamam al-Alil Base Clinic, near Mosul.

The inauguration took place in the presence of the Health Director of Nineveh, the Director of the Hamam al-Alil sub-district, civil society activists and community leaders.

Over the past few months , we have provided training for the health staff, provided logistical support, furniture and medical equipment to set up the ward and rehabilitated the infrastructure that would house it.

Previously, the inhabitants of Hamam al-Alil had to undertake long journeys to reach hospitals in Mosul in order to access adequate care and meet the needs of women, mothers and children. Access to essential care for the local population is much easier thanks to the initiatives we have been able to implement.

The new maternity ward caters for 2-3 deliveries a day and provides an average of 250 consultations a month to women and their babies, avoiding the burden of travel and meeting the needs of 39 small villages near Mosul, inhabited by over 120,000 people.

The Clinic offers essential services including pre- and post-natal care, as well as educational programmes covering family planning and breastfeeding.

"Salamtak" also aims to strengthen the capacity to prevent and manage diseases related to sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, and non-communicable diseases, by providing medical staff with continuous training and professional development.

We are proud to have achieved this, bringing a new maternity ward to an area still severely affected by the effects of war.

Thanks to the contributions of so many donors we have been able to take many steps over the years to support the local Iraqi population, and ensure medical care for women and the right to health for all in the areas most affected by the war.

Phase IV of the 'Salamtak' project was realised thanks to the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).