Close Cooperation Between GOs and NGOs
- Chinese Team Recognizes Value
in Japanese Community Health

As part of JOICFP's commitment to delivering comprehensive reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) training, a ten-member Chinese team of provincial, prefectural and county level family planning administrators visited Japan from 3rd to 14th November. The representatives from Jiangsu and Gansu provinces, and from the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) learned about Japanese experiences in population, RH/FP and community health and social welfare. Jiangsu and Gansu are expanding the integrated RH/FP project with health education and services by themselves, and the NPFPC sent project personnel of the two provinces to study how to more effectively facilitate project promotion.

Field trip

After lectures in Tokyo, the team visited Iwate prefecture where the members were informed of prefectural health activities such as disease prevention and methods to promote behavior change for better health.

They met with the Iwate Health Service Association (IHSA), a local NGO, and observed some of its fee-charging preventive health care services, including medical checks, and women-friendly examinations for uterine and breast cancer.

Mobile health units of IHSA are able to provide
many kinds of health checks to the community

In Ibonai primary school, the team learned about school health activities and was impressed by the good sanitation habits taught. They also learned about health checks for school children conducted by IHSA, which was entrusted by the village education committee.

Observing a regular health check conducted by IHSA

In Kuji City, the visitors observed a regular health check conducted by IHSA that had been entrusted by the city government, and they also observed a nursing home for the elderly.

In Ibonai primary school

The Chinese team met with a local farming family, and visited a remote mountainous area that had once suffered from high infant mortality but had been impressively transformed by the selfless dedication of community leaders.

Conclusion

Through the lectures and field trips, the visitors were impressed by the human-centered approaches that provide quality health care through the collaboration of local government, NGOs and health experts.

One Chinese visitor stated that NGO groups would be needed to take an active role in Chinese health services, and that fee charging was important if quality services and sustainability were to be delivered.