The "Woman and Child Health Research and Education Unit" was established in 1994 with European Union resources, as a Unit of the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine.

The main tasks of the Unit center around reproductive health. Provision of health care (follow-up) to children under 5 years, to adolescents, to pregnant and postnatal women, organization of educational programs and realization of service projects in areas related to woman and child health constitute the main activities of the Unit. Some of the topics of the educational programs, each of which is structured to address a specific target group such as doctors, medical teachers, professional groups other than doctors, students or other lay groups, are: "Counseling in Family Planning", "Contraceptive Methods", "What To-be Parents Should Know?", "Care of the Newborn", "Breastfeeding", "Infant Feeding", "Problems in Adolescence", "School Health", "Teaching Methodology", etc. The educational programs offered by the Unit are given in the Unit, thus benefiting from the facilities of the Unit as a model institution for primary health care.

The Unit has links with several institutions. It is on the list of the centers accredited by the Turkish Ministry of Health (MOH) as a training center in family planning. In addition to MOH, the Unit has links with UNFPA, the Willows Foundation, the Turkish Volunteers for Education Foundation (TEGV), WHO, Human Resource Development Foundation (HRDF), Mother-Chils Education Foundation (ACEV), the International Children's Center (ICC) and has conducted several projects in cooperation with some of these institutions.

The Child Health Association has been one of the main supporters of this Unit from its start. We are happy to declare that this support, financial and also by providing volunteer workers, continues full scale to this day

You also can contribute to this worthwhile effort which ultimately aims to enhance woman and child health in Turkey mainly through training health personnel of high quality who are also skilled in counseling, in communication and in teaching methods. If interested, click our Donations page.

In the context of woman and child health, a program in School Health was conducted between the years 2000-2005 in association with the Family Health Department of the Institute and the Well Baby Unit of the Department of Pediatrics A primary school situated in an underdeveloped area of Istanbul city (Ferit Aysan school in Kağithane) was selected as the site of the Project. The Project was designed to serve as a model for other school health programs in Turkey. An effort was made to involve the teachers and the school administrators as well as the primary health care center in the vicinity of the school in the Project. Two important outcomes of the Project were:

The school health program was continued by the school administration in conjunction with the Primary Health Care center in the vicinity of the school in the 2004-2005 school year, after the completion of the Project.

Dissemination meetings were held with the participation of policy makers and administrators from the Ministry of Health and from the Ministry of Education. The Project results were discussed during these meetings. The strategies and recommendations were compiled in the form of a Bye-Law presented to the two Ministries. It is hoped that this document will serve as a source in the school health activities of both Ministries.

Papers presenting the design and results of the Project were also published in a medical journal .

One other activity of the Association in the context of woman and child health is a new Project entitled “Training of Child Care Providers”, to be conducted in collaboration with the Bakırköy municipality of Istanbul city, with the support of two firms from the private sector.