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"The inauguration of a new programme is always exciting, for it brings together feelings of hope, creativity and community; and the inauguration of a building and a programme aimed at improving the health status of mothers and children fills us all with special joy", said Mawlana Hazar Imam while formally inaugurating the Aga Khan Maternity and Child Crae Centre at Hyderabad on March 13, 1989.

This institution is a Silver Jubilee Project and its foundation stone was laid by Hazar Imam in 1983. The new Maternal and Child Care Centre will play a pivotal role in the health activities of AKES in rural Sind. It is a very important component of the Aga Khan Health Services network in Pakistan, a network which is gradually evolving into a multi-tiered health care system linked in a chain from small Primary Centres in remote rural areas of the North and Sind to a large teaching Hospital and University in Karachi.

This Centre will assume the mantle of a "Front Line" institution in its true sense, whereby it could take upon itself the task of identifying the health problems in a defined population and the design and implement cost-effective interventions.

This multi-tiered approach to health care is the need of the day for as, Hazar Imam strongly stressed in his speech at the inauguration, "any person admitted to any hospital for treatment of a disease that could have been prevented represents a failure in the efforts of the health system"

He further said that it was for the governments "to make strong and unequivocal statements of their commitment to the systematic addressing of health needs", and declared, "we stand ready to assist in those efforts." He expressed his strong belief that "many efficience can be obtained through collaboration."

He called upon the community leaders to recognise their own vital roles in the health-care system and to grasp the health problems. Hazar Imam stressed the need for the development of strong, talented management teams and equally talented teams of professionals, development of common systems for monitoring quality of health care, improving system productivity and managing the network's financial commitments.

He expressed the hope that the Centre engage interest and collaboration of professional and policy makers of the national and Sind Government.

The Hyderabad Maternal and Child Care Centre contains a 68 inpatient bed facility and other modern facilities and equipments for diagnostic and medical mtreatments and a residential Training Centre for 20 student mid-wives.