Al-Shifa News Letters

July 2010 Vol. 21, No. 48

1.Muzaffarabad hospital construction completed

2.Annual address of President Al-Shifa Trust

3.Chairman NAVTEC visits Al-Shifa Trust: A boost to the paramedics training program

4.Institute of Ophthalmology at Sukkur to start working soon

5.Kohat Hospital reaches out to patients despite heavy odds

6.International trainee complete their subspecialty training programs

7.Fund raisers: Chicago, Lahore and Changla Gali

8.Participation in international Conferences

9 Patients’ Column

10 Visitors

11. Quarterly Progress Report

12. Upcoming events

12.Appeal

The construction of fourth Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital at Muzaffarabad is now complete. The hospital will formally start functioning from October 2010. This state of the art eye hospital will have the capacity to handle about 600 -1,000 patients and to undertake 60-80 surgeries daily. The Hospital is currently being equipped with modern diagnostic and curative eye machinery.  The equipment alone is estimated to cost around Rs. 30 million. The training of paramedics for Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Muzaffarabad is already in progress and by the time it starts functioning, we will have core team of trained paramedics in place.

Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Jahan Dad Khan always keeps the whole Al-Shifa team on board regarding the progress of Al-Shifa Trust. For this purpose, he addressed the staff of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi and highlighted the achievements, problems and future challenges.

On the achievement front, he talked about the establishment of Light House at Rawalpindi Hospital, the timely completion of fourth hospital at Muzaffarabad and good progress made in the construction of Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology at Sukkur. The problems faced by Al-Shifa Trust as mentioned by the President are the global economic failure, gradual drying up of international funding sources and rapidly escalating cost of treatment.  Despite these odds, he announced substantial raise in the salaries of Al-Shifa staff especially the low-income group. The raise in salaries was 15% on the last drawn salary. In addition, the basic salaries of Nurses and Drivers were specially raised to make it competitive. This was further beefed up by the incentives provided by Al-Shifa Trust including free transport, free accommodation, EOB, and Gratuity. Under Shahnaz Bhatti Welfare Project, the low-income employees were given additional incentives of financial and medical support in event of any chronic serious disease or accidental death. This Welfare Fund Committee holds meetings every three months to ascertain the deserving employees.

He emphasized that we will never compromise on quality and efficiency and will try our best to provide the best possible eye care to all segments of society.

Raja Mumtaz Gold Medal announced. President Al-Shifa also specially addressed the newly inducted PIO trainee doctors to welcome them to Al-Shifa and advised them to fully utilize this golden opportunity for quality training. In the memory of late Prof. Raja Mumtaz Quli Khan, the first chief consultant of Al-Shifa Trust, he announced the launching of Raja Mumtaz Gold Medal for the best resident each year. In addition, the best resident/trainee will be given cash prize and provided with the opportunity to have short-term clinical attachment at one of the international centers of excellence. 

President Al-Shifa also emphasized the need of better communication with the patients to provide appropriate counseling where needed. He also announced a yearly competition between different clinical units (A, B and C) of Rawalpindi hospital on the basis of overall performance including patient care, discipline, training etc.

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Under Prime Minister’s Skill Development Program, National Vocational Training and Education Commission (NAVTEC) has provided a substantial grant of Rs. six million for training about 85 eye paramedics. The program is already half way through. Recently, Chairman NAVTEC, Mr. Adnan Khawaja visited Al-Shifa Trust to see the progress of the program on ground. He was accompanied by DG Planning and rest of the senior management of NAVTEC.  Chairman visited all the modern training facilities both within the hospital as well as in National Academy of Paramedics. He also addressed the students and emphasized that the facilities provided by Al-Shifa Trust and the support by NAVTEC is a unique opportunity for them to make their future career bright. Greatly impressed by the standard, Mr. Adnan Khawja said that he has full confidence in the credibility and efficiency of Al-Shifa Trust and NAVTEC will be prepared not only to extend but also expand this cooperation between the two institutions for long time to come. He also announced to donate good number of computers for Light House.

The popularity of paramedics training program can be judged from the fact, that this year, for 15 seats available for refractionist course, there were 175 applicants.  In view of popularity of these courses, AST is looking at the feasibility of evening classes and is planning to start General Nursing course to meet the acute shortage of this vital cadre. 

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Institute of Ophthalmology at AST Sukkur to start by November

The Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology (PIO) at Sukkur Hospital will be a great step towards provision of well-qualified professionals in the field of eye care in the region. Being built on the lines of PIO Rawalpindi, it will soon start training ophthalmic nurses, ophthalmic technicians and refractionists. The postgraduate training for doctors will be taken up after this. This will make it a major facility for Skill Development and HRD.

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Despite the recent turmoil in the region and prevailing security environment in the area, the outreach program of the hospital which is very popular is going on at normal pace. Recently Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Kohat conducted a special camp for the affectees of a bomb blast in village Shah Hasan Khel, district Laki Marwat. Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital team not only provided treatment for the eye injuries and related problems, but it also distributed relief items to the affected families.

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International trainee complete their subspecialty training programs

Recently, five senior ophthalmologists from Bangladesh completed their short-term subspecialty training at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi. These included Dr Malik Iftekhar Siddique and Dr. Inamur Rahman Choudhury in Low Vision,  Dr. Saifuddin Ahmed in Vitreo-retina, Dr. Iftekhar Md. Munir in Glaucoma, Dr. Masum Habib in Cornea and Dr Shawpan Kumar in Oculoplastics. “We find the training facilities of Al-Shifa Trust as one of the best in the region” commented Dr. Masum Habib who has also been to other regional countries for this type of training.

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Al-Shifa Trust has been greatly focusing on the domestic front for raising funds for its ever expanding activities. Previously successful fund raiser was conducted in Islamabad. During this quarter, three important fund-raising functions were held at St. Louis, USA,  Lahore and Changla Gali- Pakistan.

1. Fund raiser at Lahore

The Lahore function was held on 03 April. It was attended by large number of people from all walks of life and it was able to generate around 16 million Rs.. The unique feature of this function was participation by a large number of dignitaries prominent among those was Mr. Mushahid Hussain Syed ex-governors, Mr. Khalid Maqbool, and Mr. Shahid Hamid.

Trustees along with Mr. Mushahid Hussain Syed at Lahore Function

2. The fund raiser at Changla Gali – the highest scenic view mountain in Punjab- was arranged by one of the Trustees of Al-Shifa Trust, Mr. Sajjad Afzal Cheema. Held on 11 July, it was also attended by Mr. Nasir Ali Khan, Ambassador-at-large. The function was quite successful and it was able to raise around six million.

Participants of Changla Gali Function

3 Fund raisers in USA

A houseful crowd at the Double Tree Hotel, St. Louis on 25th June 2010 showed overwhelming support for the Al-Shifa Foundation of North America (AFNA) in its efforts to help Al-Shifa Eye Hospitals’ ongoing projects in Pakistan by raising $ 75,000. Mr. Tahir Zafar, President of Al-Shifa Foundation of North America and his colleagues deserve special appreciation for the untiring efforts they made in making this function successful. “Helping people who need help is spiritually a great prescription for our own health and St. Louis community has proven time and again with their generosity and graciousness,” said Dr. Abid Nisar, chairman, AFNA St. Louis. He recognized Dr. Ishaq Chishti, Dr. Wadood Ur Rehman and Ghazala Hayat for starting the chapter of AFNA in St. Louis. Dr. Wajid Ali Khan, Chief Ophthalmologist and Dean of Al-Shifa, explained in detail the projects undertaken at the Al-Shifa Hospitals in Pakistan.

Participation in international Conference

Prof. Wajid Ali Khan presented his original research work at World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin from 5th to 10 June 2010. The work on Amniotic Membrane Transplant at Al-Shifa was greatly appreciated by the audience.

Patient Column

12 years old Sara loved to paint. It was not until eleven that she began to had problem reading and identifying colors.  Her parents did not believe her and thought she is playing games. But one day with her eyes filled with tears she told her mother ‘I cannot see and cannot tell colors apart any more mother.’ As tears rolled down her cheeks, she only wished for one thing; to see all those vibrant, bright and glowing colors once again. Panicked and worried her parents took her to many doctors who advised a costly and complicated eye operation but Sara’s parents were not financially strong to pay for such major surgery. Unable to find money for operation, her treatment was limited to just taking medicines. Gradually the darkness grew stronger and her hopes of seeing the colors of life again became weaker and weaker and one day everything vanished. All those vivid colors that used to fill her life with laughter and joy disappeared.
We encounter many stories like this every day. We read them, feel sorry and move on but we forget the fact that in these stories live people who are just like us, with same passion and desire to live. The only difference is that we carry out and move on with our daily activities, but they are halted, they are waiting; waiting for a miracle to happen, waiting for someone who would come and fill their lives with color and light again. Many such people whom we can help with little effort on our part live and die in waiting. Al-Shifa Trust Eye hospital is one such organization that is striving to become the first ray of light in lives of these blind people. Through a family friend Sara’s parents came to know about Al-Shifa Trust Eye hospital. After a thorough check up Sara’s parents were hopeful for the first time; she could see again. Once operated, as she saw the beaming faces of her mother and father a single tear rolled down her cheek, a tear of joy. There were colors, light, and hope again. Now she believed in miracles and her miracle happened at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital. This Hospital is a source of hope to many such people and brought smiles to many who could never have thought that they could see again.  Many such people like Sara are waiting; waiting for you to show them hope and light because alone we can do so little, together we can create miracles.

2. Yaleed from Mauritius gets treatment at Al-Shifa Trust

22 years old Mr. Yaleed from Mauritius was leading a normal life till about 2 years back, when he started having gradual deterioration and blurring of vision. He was examined repeatedly by leading ophthalmologists of the country and finally diagnosed to have progressive keratoconus- a condition whereby the anterior spherical portion of eye gradually becomes conical and may lead to blindness. The latest treatment for this kind of ailment is known as C3XL. This treatment is available in only few countries of the world and is costly. Finally, through internet, he got the information that the nearest and most economical place for this treatment is Pakistan at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi.  He is currently under treatment at our hospital and already the signs of improvement in his vision are available.

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Visitors

During this quarter Dr. Sania Nishtar, a renowned international expert on health advocacy, who is running a well known NGO Heartfile and Mr. Mehta Past International Director of Lions Clubs International  visited our Rawalpindi Hospital.

Mr. Mehta, Senator PID Mrs. Nilofar Bakhtiar and PDGs Lion Dr. Zubair Hassan and Mr. Wajid

Dr. Sania Nishtar

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Quarterly Progress Report

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APPEAL

APPEAL
Al-Shifa Needs Your Support
Al-Shifa is a Not-for-Profit and a non-political organization. It is committed to providing eye care and treatment mainly to the under privileged and poor. Almost 75% of all patients attending Al-Shifa Eye Hospital are treated free. The Trust is able to meet only 30-40% of its expenses from its own sources while the remaining expenses are met through Zakat, donations and support from philanthropists. 
 Your contribution means the gift of sight for someone in need!

Ramadan showers special blessings on those who contribute for the suffering humanity. Kindly donate generously.

Kindly note that your Zakat donations go separately to the accounts which are dedicated for treatment of Zakat patients only.
Kindly send your donations or Zakat to following Account Numbers: -

1. In UK

   1. Habib Bank AG Zurich 5/7 High Street Southall, Middlesex UB 1 3HA, UK, Account Number = 7-2-7-20311-402-109356 (Pound Sterling Account), Account Number = 7-2-7-20311-333-109356 (US dollar Account)
   2. HSBC Bank AuchinLeck House, Birmingham:  Account Number = 40-1108 (sort code)-41311565 (Account number)

   In USA

   1. National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), 100 Wall Street, 21st Floor New York, NY 10005:            Account Number = 52152578
   2. Al-Shifa Foundation of North America: 474 Wall Street, Princeton, NJ 08540. Tel: (609) 279-1400, Email : [email protected] , website: www.afnausa.org. (AFNA has been granted not-for-profit status under section 501(C)(3) status of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax ID No: 36-4328912 (For use of US Residents)

   In Pakistan, donations can be sent directly to Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi or to: -

   1. Askari Commercial Bank Limited, Adiala Road Branch Rawalpindi. Account No. 078-01-010-1715-3
   2. Habib Bank Ltd. Kashmir Road Branch Rawalpindi. Account No. 1236-00355425-01
   3. United Bank Ltd. Cantonment Branch Rawalpindi. Account No. 011-0228-4
   4. Allied Bank Ltd. Adam Jee Road Branch, Saddar Rawalpindi. Account No. 01-200-3589-7
   5. National Bank of Pakistan, Corporate Branch, Bank road Saddar,  Rawalpindi. Account No.18-5

   All donations in Pakistan are exempted from Income Tax vide Regional Commissioner Income Tax, Islamabad, letter number SO-III-26 (9)97-98/5422 dated 23rd May 1998, and Sec 61(X) of second schedule of Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

   For donors outside the country especially in UK and USA provision for online donations through Paypal are also now available

   Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi