By an eight million dollar grant provided by the Dutch government, maternity homes in Macedonia will be reconstructed and health nursing service and health centers for immunization will be strengthened.

The project for establishing an integrated system to improve the protection of the health of mother and child known as the ORIO project is planned to be implemented in two phases. The first phase will last six months when a detailed analysis of all maternity homes will be made, visiting services and centers for immunization and in the second phase, which will take 2.5 years, implementation of the project is envisaged.

The implementation is expected to bring a full renovation and equip all maternity homes in the country, purchase of 75 off-road vehicles for patronage and service centers for immunization, renewed equipment for storage and transport of vaccines and medical equipment for patronage centers and centers for immunization.

The Agreement on implementation of the project was signed today by the Health Minister Nikola Todorov and Dutch Ambassador Mariette Shurman.