Dr. Kiyonga speaking at the eventThe Government of Uganda has commended its Italian partners for launching the PRISMA project, a three-year initiative aimed at strengthening maternal and child healthcare and improving the prevention and treatment of female and childhood cancers. PRISMA stands for Prevention, Research, and Integrated Services for Child and Maternal Healthcare.The project, which began in July, is funded by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation through its Directorate General for Development Cooperation. It has a budget of €12.75 million and will combine healthcare delivery, training, research and governance.The project was officially launched in Kampala on Saturday, with Second Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Crispus Kiyonga presiding as chief guest. He welcomed the initiative and urged its partners to design healthcare interventions around the challenges faced by rural communities, particularly people living in hard-to-reach areas such as Karamoja.Kiyonga said scattered settlements, population movements and geographical barriers make it difficult for health workers to provide consistent services, including routine immunisation. In Karamoja, he said, communities often move in search of water and pasture, making it harder to trace children who need follow-up vaccinations.He urged project partners to ensure that healthcare delivery responds to the realities of rural populations rather than being concentrated in urban centres.“Nobody should die when they are giving birth. We have come from 700 to around 200, but even that 200 is bad news. So PRISMA is most welcome. Let’s work on that and see how far down we can go towards zero,” Kiyonga said. He pledged that the government would follow up on areas of cooperation discussed with the Italian delegation, saying it would work to ensure commitments lead to tangible improvements in service delivery.Health Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi also pledged the government’s support, describing PRISMA as relevant to Uganda’s health priorities.“This project is appropriate and touches on the core issues in Uganda,” said Baryomunsi. “This project speaks to the realities in Uganda. We still have a high burden of communicable diseases. However, we have also seen an increase in non-communicable diseases, worsened by epidemics such as Ebola.”Baryomunsi said Uganda had made progress in healthcare provision over the past 30 to 40 years, while noting that significant challenges remained.“So, we welcome PRISMA,” he said. He praised the project’s focus on Northern Uganda, saying the region had lagged behind following a 20-year civil war. He added that directing support to the north was consistent with the government’s priorities.Marco Riccardo Rusconi, Director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, said PRISMA was particularly strategic in a country with high birth rates. He said the initiative would also strengthen specialised medical services, including oncology.“The scale of the initiative and its broad, integrated partnerships are fully in line with the new priorities of Italian Development Cooperation: less fragmentation, stronger alliances among implementing partners and greater capacity to generate measurable results for communities,” Rusconi said.PRISMA will operate in four sub-regions of Northern Uganda: West Nile, Karamoja, Lango and Acholi. The project describes these areas as having high levels of socio-health vulnerability, shortages of specialised services and limited access to healthcare, particularly for women of reproductive age, pregnant women, newborns and children under five. Working with Gulu University, the initiative aims to develop a comprehensive healthcare programme to strengthen maternal and child health services and support the new regional branch of the Uganda Cancer Institute in Gulu.Amos Mwaka, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Gulu University, said cancer had become a major challenge in low- and middle-income countries. He said a diagnosis should no longer be a death sentence and pledged that the university would lead work on screening, early detection and care. Mwaka also said the university would study resistance to treatment to generate evidence that could inform future improvements in care.Nixon Niyonzima, Head of Research and Training at the Uganda Cancer Institute, said referral systems must be strengthened so people who are screened can access treatment. He said working with local partners such as AVSI would help the government collect samples from communities for testing.Niyonzima added that the project aligned with the government’s priorities for decentralising cancer care.Guiseppe Gorini, Vice Rector at the University of Milano, said he hoped the project’s results would help Uganda achieve better healthcare and a better future.AVSI Foundation Uganda Country Representative John Makoha said the project would address persistent maternal and childhood health challenges through better coordination between communities, health facilities and referral services. Makoha said pregnancy complications, difficult deliveries, premature births and childhood illnesses could quickly become life-threatening when healthcare services were not well coordinated.“Maternal and child health challenges demand more than isolated solutions. A complication during pregnancy, a difficult delivery, a premature birth or a childhood illness can quickly become life-threatening when timely care, appropriate skills, referral mechanisms and follow-up are not adequately connected,” Makoha said. He identified maternal haemorrhage, prematurity, birth asphyxia, malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malnutrition as persistent challenges requiring coordinated preventive and clinical interventions.Makoha said AVSI would prioritise improving the quality and continuity of maternal and child healthcare, strengthening the capacity of health workers and institutions, and promoting the use of research and evidence in planning and delivering services. He said access to healthcare must be matched by timely, quality services throughout a patient’s care. “Access alone is not enough. The quality, timeliness and consistency of care are equally important to achieving better health outcomes,” he said.The post “Nobody Should Die Giving Birth”: Italy Gives Uganda €12.75m to Save Mothers and Children appeared first on Business Focus.