Welfare-oriented: USAID to establish hospital and libraries

KARACHI:

A hospital with modern equipment and facilities will be set up in Jacobabad by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

This was stated by the US consul general, Michael Dodman, during a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday. The regional director of USAID, Edward Brigells, said that the project would be completed within a year. The hospital will cost over Rs1 billion.

Dodman said that in collaboration with the Sindh culture department, centres for teaching English in major cities of the province had already been set up and 1,500 students in Karachi and 700 in Hyderabad have been trained at these centres. Currently three libraries are being constructed in Hyderabad, Khairpur and Larkana with more to follow across Sindh.

Shah said that the ‘Teachers Training Programme’ should be initiated by USAID to improve the standard of education and that there was a need of a healthcare system overhaul in Sindh. He added that a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between USAID and the Sindh Government.Shah appreciated the efforts made by USAID for the health and education sector of Sindh. Those who attended the meeting included the CM’s principal secretary, Muhammad Siddique Memon and Sindh Health Secretary Aftab Ahmed Khatri among others.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.