Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Under Secretary General of the United Nations Natalia Kanem passed her busy times  through different activities in Gaibandha on  Tuesday.

On that day around 9AM she landed at Tulshighat helipad, 3 km away from  Gaibandha district town, with an army helicopter from Dhaka.

Rangpur divisional director of health Dr. ABM Abu Hanif, divisional director of department of family planning Dewan Morshed Kamal, superintendent of police (SP) Md. Kamal Hossain,  received the undersecretary general Natalia Kanem through giving her bouquets of flowers at the helipad.

Then, she went to Sapmara union under Gobindaganj upazila in the district by road and visited Santal Health Project being jointly implemented by LAMB Hospital and UNFPA Bangladesh at the union.

She also exchanged her views with the men of small ethnic group,  Santal community  there and talked to them about the improvement of their life and livelihood.

In that time, she was also briefed about the role of midwives of the project in case of institutional and safe deliveries of the Santal women

The officials of the project said the child and mother mortality rates have reduced significantly for institutional deliveries by the midwives of the project at the command areas of the project and its adjoin areas.

Hearing it, Natania Kanem highly appreciated the activities of the project including reproductive health of the adolescent girls of the Santal the role of the mid wives for reducing child and mortality rate among the Santal community for ensuring institutional and safe delivery to Santal pregnant women  and said we respect the midwives as they dedicated themselves to service work.

At last, she urged all the concerned of the project to be more serious and professional to perform their duties sincerely to attain the cherished goals of the project that is being implemented for Santal Community here.

Earlier, The Santal men and women received her at the their village following their cultural rules like rendering songs, performing dances and sprinkling flower petals.

Mr Pio Smith, UNFPA Asia-Pacific regional director, and Kristine Blokhus, UNFPA Bangladesh representative accompanied her during her visits.

Later, she visited the activities of Women, Children and Disabled Support Center established at Gaibandha Sadar Police Station of the district in the afternoon.

Apart from these, she also visited the head office of Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK), a non-government voluntary organization at Nashratpur under Sadar upazila in the district  in the afternoon around 2 PM and exchanged her views about climate change resilient  issues with the Transgenders coming from different places of the district at the invitation of the organization.

Then , she was flown to Dhaka from Gaibandha in the late afternoon.