Project News

I warmly welcome you to the website of the Project for Strengthening Health Systems through Organizing Communities (The SHASTO Project).

The non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are great concerns in Bangladesh along with the most of the countries in the world. The Government of Bangladesh has taken multiple steps to prevent NCDs at the primary level through early detection and management. But for successful prevention, it needs involvement of all the stakeholders at the community level along with optimum awareness of the community.

We are pleased to initiate the new management of the project with the intention to improve the NCDs and maternal health services in an integrated manner. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is the main Government counterpart of this project. The field implementation of the project is going on through the Non-Communicable Disease Control (NCDC) department of Directorate General of Health Services, and Community Based Health Care (CBHC), Upazila Health Care (UzHC) and Quality Improvement Secretariat (QIS).

The SHASTO Project was launched in July 2017 and currently we are working at the 6 upazilas of two districts (Narsingdi and Cox's Bazar) on pilot basis. All the Community Clinics (CCs), Upazila Health Complexes (UHCs) and District Hospital (DHs) of the pilot areas are included under this project. The capacity of the Community Groups (CGs) and Community Support Group (CSGs) has been strengthened to disseminate NCD prevention information to the community through organizing health education sessions. Good linkage has been established among all the group members and CCs. For providing one stop services, NCD corners have been established at the UHCs and DHs. CCs are providing screening services, and refer the suspected patients to the NCD corners for diagnosis and management. Along with this, network of NCDs services and referral system are being strengthened through quality improvement activities. In addition, NCD eMIS has been introduced in one Upazila and will be expanded in the rest of 5 Upazilas. I strongly hope that this model will be instrumental to control and prevent NCDs substantially.

I am glad that the MoHFW at national level and other stakeholders at community level are extending their great support to make this story success.

I hope this website will serve the purpose of building network of information where you can share your views and comments for the improvement, which will be highly appreciated.