Kabul [Afghanistan], October 19 (ANI): The United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) has announced the formation of family health houses in the earthquake-ravaged Paktika province of southeastern Afghanistan.

The humanitarian body has announced the establishment of 18 new "family health houses" in the quake-ravaged province, Khaama Press reported.

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"We are scaling up our services for women, girls & children in #Afghanistan . In #Paktika province, we just opened 18 new Family Health Houses to provide life-saving reproductive, maternal, newborn & child health services to underserved communities 24/7," the UNFPA's representative in Afghanistan, Dr Aleksandar S. Bodiroza tweeted on Tuesday.

In addition to providing "life-saving" maternal, reproductive, and newborn services, these centres will aid pregnant women 24/7, Bodiroza said.

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Meanwhile, according to a report from the World Food Program (WFP) the earthquake destroyed around 2,100 houses in the Paktika province districts of Gayan and Barmal, as well as the Khost district of Spera, Khaama Press reported.

According to the WFP report, 1000 houses were destroyed in the Gayan district, 300 houses in Paktika province's Barmal district, and 800 other residential houses in Khost province.

Occurrences of floods and earthquakes across several provinces of Afghanistan have affected more than 2,23,000 people over the past several months, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a recent report.

In an earlier report, OCHA said that more than 24 million people are facing food shortages in Afghanistan.

Almost 23 million Afghan people benefitting from at least one form of humanitarian aid delivered as the UN office's Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan seek to provide relief aid to at least 22.1 million people this year.

OCHA said that it continues to coordinate the emergency response on behalf of humanitarian partners in all four regions affected - central, eastern, southern, and south-eastern regions.(ANI)

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