Azra Pechuho launches family planning helpline 'Poocho’

KARACHI: Sindh’s Minister of Health, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, recently launched the Sindh FP2020 Helpline called 'Poocho.' This helpline is a reliable source of 24/7 family planning, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information, and counseling services, especially for adolescents and youth.

Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, along with the Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) Secretariat, Population Welfare Department, in collaboration with Greenstar Marketing (GSM) launched the Sindh FP2020 Helpline called 'Poocho.' The helpline initially was launched by Greenstar in 2005.

Poocho is comprised of highly skilled team members who are committed to providing support to the callers round the clock. The team is equipped with state of the art communication systems, which include inbound and outbound calls facility, outgoing SMS facility, customer relationship management (CRM) system, and family planning algorithms, integrated voice recording (IVR), and automated caller feedback facility.

An active training and quality assurance mechanism is also an integral part of the helpline that allows to maintain the standard and improve the quality of services. The Poocho helpline is currently providing family planning information and counseling services to more than 3000 women and men per month and can serve 20000 callers per month.

The philosophy behind Poocho is encouraging people to discuss their family planning needs and providing them a comfortable environment where they do not feel shy to talk about their personal health issues. Poocho is a platform where people will get comprehensive family planning information and customized counseling services. It is a resource on which people trust that their information is in safe hands and their discussion will be kept confidential.

An MoU is signed between the Sindh FP 2020, and as a result of this MoU, Poocho has become the official FP2020 Helpline of Sindh. The objective of this public-private partnership is to integrate Poocho Helpline (0800 11171) with PWD, DoH, PPHI, LHW, and MNCH under the umbrella of CIP as the official FP2020 Helpline, to support increasing CPR in Sindh.

Poocho is available 24/7 for provision of FP information and counseling services, task sharing with service providers through comprehensive FP/SRH counseling of clients for pre-service decision-making, reduction in method discontinuation through dispelling myths and misconceptions and side effects, management counseling, and developing an effective referral and clients follow-up mechanism.