Home visits for pregnant mothers and young children expanded to Prishtina

Prishtina, 25 January 2023 - Today, as part of continued efforts to strengthen the health system in Kosovo, the Municipality of Prishtina together with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF announced the start of the Home Visiting programme for maternal and child health in Prishtina.

On this occasion UNICEF handed over to the Municipality of Prishtina a vehicle to help nurses and home visitors reach families. This was part of a larger donation of 10 vehicles for 10 municipalities (Prishtinë, Podujevë, Pejë, Ferizaj, Mitrovicë, Obiliq, Rahovec Klinë, Kaçanik, Kamenicë) to improve the coverage and quality of services provided through the programme.

The Mayor of Prishtina, Perparim Rama said that: “I am very happy that the Department of Health will implement this Programme, which marks a very important step in providing primary health care to pregnant women and babies and children in our city. This Programme will enable the team of nurses of the capital city to stay by mothers and children in this essential phase, which has its own difficulties - especially for families who live far from the city and cannot regularly visit Family Medicine Centers. I take this opportunity to call on all the citizens of Prishtina to make use of this Programme, which I believe will significantly improve the health and well-being of our citizens. I hereby extend my heartfelt gratitude to all partners - the Government of Luxembourg, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Health - for their support and commitment to this Programme. Let us work together to make the lives of Prishtina residents healthier and happier.”

Home Visiting is a programme of the Ministry of Health which aims to improve maternal and child health outcomes by bringing key services closer to families.  Established in 2014 with the assistance of UNICEF and the generous support of the Government of Luxembourg, the programme is now fully integrated within the Primary Health Care services in Kosovo and operational in all 38 municipalities.

During this meeting, the Minister of Health, Vitia, explained the importance of this project, for which Kosovo institutions budgeted last year, for the first time in the framework of the specific grant for primary health, the amount of EUR 3.4 million. Municipality of Prishtina will benefit from this grant around half a million euros for the improvement of health services.

“Thanks to the UNICEF Home Visiting Programme supported by Luxembourg, over 80,000 children aged 0-3 and 15,000 pregnant women have been reached. It is the trained nurses who conduct the regular home visits to monitor children’s well-being and growth and provide advice on immunization, nutrition, breastfeeding and parenting”, said the Chargé d’Affaires of the Government of Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg in Kosovo, Eric Diets.

The head of UNICEF office in Kosovo, Nona Zicherman, said -“Prevention and early intervention are good investments. From a small pilot introduced in 2014, Home Visiting has transformed into a Kosovo-wide program and will cover many more children with today’s expansion in Pristina. To reach their full potential young children need good health, adequate nutrition, responsive parenting, and a stimulating and safe home environment. This is what Home Visiting is all about: bringing quality maternal and child health care closer to families and providing linkages to other critical services that children may need.” 

The Ministry of Health, The Government of Luxembourg and UNICEF are committed to continuing their partnership to ensure that the health system can reach every child in Kosovo with quality health services.