UM Healthcare Trust

UM Healthcare Trust

Affordable healthcare for rural Pakistan

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Mission

UM Healthcare Trust aims to provide subsidized and affordable healthcare services to the rural communities in Pakistan.

Relief

UM Healthcare Trust is working closely with their partners in providing relief to IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in rural Mardan District. There are over 2 .5million such refugees in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, thus creating the biggest humanitarian disaster in Pakistan (even larger than the 2005 Earthquake that jolted the north of Pakistan displacing 1.5 million people).

The Need

Pakistan is experiencing an acute shortage of qualified healthcare specialists and adequate health facilities in rural areas of Pakistan. For a population of over 160 million people, there are less than 110,000 registered medical doctors and no more than 1,000 government run hospitals. Furthermore, Pakistan has one of the highest infant (86.8/1000) and maternal (170.8/1000) mortality rates in the region.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 70% of Pakistanis never get to see a doctor in their entire life and instead rely on Lady Health Workers (LHWs) for their medical needs. These LHW are government trained healthcare workers who operate out of their homes in rural areas of Pakistan providing primary and maternal care. There are over 100,000 such healthcare workers in Pakistan, each responsible for a community of about 1,000 in their neighborhood.