The Government of Sindh in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), School Education and Literacy Department (SELD), and Directorate of Registration and Private Schools (DIRPIS), and the Commissioner Office Karachi conducted its first mass deworming campaign from 1st to 5th November in all seven districts of Karachi under the umbrella of Pakistan Deworming Initiative (PDI) with technical and financial support of IRD Pakistan and Evidence Action.
The five-day long campaign mobilized over 10,000 health workers who visited schools, madaris and households deworming more than 2.6 million at-risk school age children (SAC) in the metropolitan city.
Leading the way for deworming the highest number of children stands District Korangi (~0.51 million) followed by West (~0.47 million), Kemari (~0.40 million), East (~0.38 million), Central (~0.33 million), South (~0.27 million), and Malir (~0.25 million). Of a total target population of nearly 4.2 million at-risk SAC, the mass campaign dewormed about 63% including some of the most vulnerable populations in the city. The dewormed children are fairly equally proportionate across gender treating about 1.3 million boys and a little over 1.3 million girls.
A robust awareness campaign including banners, Television Commercials, Radio Messages and Public Service Messages (PSMs) were widely circulated prior to the campaign.
The campaign kicked off early morning on Monday, 1st of November whereby health worker teams organized themselves under the supervision of the district health authorities including the District Health Offices (DHOs), District Education Offices (DEOs), District Commissioner Offices in Korangi, Malir, East, West, Kemari, South, and Central districts of Karachi. In order to cater to adverse events in the campaign.
