Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH) established in Matuail, Dhaka, about 7 km from the capital. The first initiative to establish ICMH was taken in 1981. In 1989 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) acquired 12.62 acres of land and the project was approved in 1991; ICMH started functioning from July 1992. The objectives of the institute are: to assess the status of health and nutrition of children and mothers; to formulate measures for the prevention of diseases and promotion of health nutrition; to invent low cost effective treatment; and to develop health workers, health professionals and health managers.

The institute has highly trained, skilled faculty members, and about 230 staff members of whom 45% are female; a director heads the institute. There is a 65-bed hospital; the outpatients' department has the capacity to serve about 1500 mothers and children everyday. A diarrhoea and malnutrition treatment centre has been set up for emergency service, and remains open 24 hours. In its Julkuri branch, situated about 5 km away from the Institute, 200-500 mothers and children get treatment daily. There are facilities for short postgraduate courses on paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, and nursing. The institute has other departments, like Pathology, and Blood Transfusion, Anaesthesiology, Diagnostic imaging (radiology), etc. About 40 training courses have been devised for training health workers and health professionals. [SM Humayun Kabir]