The Health Express for Mothers project has made donations of 102 medical vehicles to 39 county-level areas in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality since the project was launched by the China Women's Development Foundation in 2003.
According to Chongqing Women's Federation, local women's federations and beneficiary hospitals have made full use of mobile clinics to carry out free screening for breast and cervical cancers (''two cancers'') and medical examinations for gynecological diseases, the check-up of pregnant women, and provide vocational training to grassroots health workers, building a solid health line for women across the region.
The availability of medical vehicles has fundamentally mitigated the difficulties for rural women to visit doctors, raised the efficiency of sending patients to hospitals, reduced the cost for women to give birth, and played a vital role in saving lives.
Meanwhile, on such occasions as International Women's Day (March 8), International Children's Day (June 1), the Spring Festival holiday, and in open-air fairs, women's federations at all levels in Chongqing have sent medical vehicles to places near local residents' homes, promoted basic medical and health knowledge and provided free screening for ''two cancers'' to them.
Wang Juan (pseudonym) is a villager from Jinxi Town in Chongqing's Qianjiang District. In the past, she seldom had time to visit a hospital and receive a comprehensive gynecological examination. Thanks to the Health Express for Mothers project, she received a free screening in her village and got professional advice on her health problems earlier this year. Wang has paid more attention to her health and remained grateful for the public welfare project.
Relevant statistics show that during the past two decades, medical vehicles of the Health Express for Mothers project have provided health check-ups to over three million people, distributed medicines worth a combined six million yuan (US $833,333), and provided free screening for ''two cancers'' to over 10 million women across Chongqing.
The project has played a significant role in raising health awareness of rural women and children, reducing mortality of pregnant and lying-in women as well as infants, and improving rural women's life qualities.
(Source: China Women's News/Translated by Women of China)
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