(Press Release ) On May 6th 2018 at Teaching Obstetric Hospital in Port Sudan the inauguration of the Semi Intensive Care Unit and Nutritional Ward funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and implemented by the Italian Ong AISPO and the University of Sassari in partnership with the Ministry of Health took place in the presence of the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Amad Abdu Rabu, the Director of the Hospital, Dr. Abdallah, the Governor of the Red Sea State, H.E. Mr. Ali Ahmed Hamidt, the Italian Ambassador Fabrizio Lobasso, the AICS Representative Vincenzo Racalbuto, and representatives of the Hospital.
The Italian interventions foreseen the rehabilitation of both a semi intensive care unit where around 190 patients from will benefit of the service with 6 beds fully equipped, and a nutritional ward where around 150 patients will be admitted yearly for severe malnutrition, severe anemia, obesity and vitamin deficiencies.
“Italy is deeply committed in Sudan through a number of initiatives promoting strengthening of health system: at the moment Italy is implementing - through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation – a number of projects in the Health Sector for a total budget of 25 M Euro over a total budget of approximately 73 M Euro, approximately 30% of the total budget” stated the Italian Ambassador, underling that Italy is in the frontline against both malnutrition and improving the health system in Sudan because a better health is central to human happiness and well-being.
The Italian Ambassador recall that Italy is the Donors’ Convener for the UN Programme SUN - Scaling Up Nutrition - aimed at prioritizing nutrition as central to national development and imperative to improve maternal and child nutrition. All the efforts will be in line with the Strategy and the Roadmap (2016-2020) in order to achieve SDG #2 “Zero Hunger by 2030” he concluded.
The Director General of the Ministry of Health Dr. Amad Abdu Rabu thanking Italy for the commitment he affirmed that Italy and Sudan worked together to improve the health service quality and succeeded in reaching the goal and to respind to the need of the population.
The representative of AICS Khartoum - Vincenzo Racalbuto - affirmed that Italian Cooperation is committed with a number of initiatives promoting the improvement of health not only in Red Sea State but also in Kassala – Gedaref and Khartoum trough a number of initiatives tackling hospital services improvement; primary health care development; and clinical quality.
The event has been the occasion – as well - to distribute 20 certificates to teachers of the Academy Health Science who participated at the computer course organized by AISPO and Sassari University and funded by AICS- aimed at improving their training capacity through the use of new methodology.