Al-Shifa News Letters

November 2009 Vol. 20, No. 46

1 President Al-Shifa receives AGFUND award – A unique honor for Al-Shifa

2 Chief Minister of Sindh inaugurates institute of ophthalmology at Sukkur

3 Light House established at Sukkur

4 Embassy of Japan provides assistance for Kohat Hospital

5 Muzaffarabad hospital will start functioning in near future

6 Work on Al-Shifa Self-Reliance Tower

7 President Al-Shifa to visit Gulf

8 Patient Column

9 Quarterly Progress Report

10 Upcoming events

11 Appeal

On October 13, 2009, President Al-Shifa received the coveted international AGFUND (Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations) prize at Istanbul. This prestigious ceremony was honored by President of Turkey and HRM Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, the founder of AGFUND.
 AGFUND is a non-profit regional development institution, established in 1980 by the initiative of HRM Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, with the support of the leaders of the Arab Gulf States. The AGFUND gives annual award to top three projects which have made significant contribution towards welfare of humanity around the world. This is done after comprehensive evaluation of their performance by a high level UNO committee. In year 2008, the Prize Committee approved three winning projects, including one from Al-Shifa Trust from among 35 projects from 24 countries in 4 continents. The other recipients were Hellen Keller international from USA and Al-Magrabi Hospital from Egypt.
This is a moment of pride for Pakistan, for our donors, and for dedicated team of Al-Shifa Trust. We take this opportunity to thank our donors without whom we could not have achieved this.
Our readers may recall that earlier, Al-Shifa Trust has been awarded with the best partnership award by WHO in March 2006 and Gold Medals by Ophthalmological Society of Pakistan in Dec 2007 and Dec. 2008.

Mr. Jahan Dad Khan receiving AGFUND Shield from HRM Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz

Mr. Jahan Dad Khan receiving AGFUND Certificate from Nobel laureate Mr. M Younis

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Mr. Jahan Dad Khan presenting Al-Shifa Souvenir to HRM Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz Top

Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah performed foundation-laying ceremony of academic wing –Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Sukkur on 27th September 2009. This training wing will impart training to paramedics and doctors. On this occasion, President Al-Shifa Trust, Lt Gen. (Retd.) Jahan Dad Khan while briefing the Chief Minister on various aspects of the hospital, informed that Sukkur hospital has now attained the status of a tertiary eye care center with advanced equipment and specialist doctors who are regularly being trained at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi.  The CM, accompanied by senior federal minister Mr. Khursheed Shah, MPAs and other notables took keen interest in specialized units of the hospital and appreciated the efforts of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Sukkur in providing quality eye treatment at no cost to large segment of underserved population of upper Sindh and adjoining Punjab and Baluchistan.  Chief Minister announced Rs. 10 million for the hospital and promised to continue financial assistance on permanent basis.

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Light House, an international concept for rehabilitation of people with incurable vision loss through provision of latest technology by enabling these people of all ages and professions to live an independent life at home, at work and in the community has been recently brought to Pakistan by Al-Shifa Trust. With the help of Universal Service Funds (USF), the first such center has already been established at our Rawalpindi hospital. Now this facility has been made available at Sukkur also which is the only of its kind in Sindh Province.

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Government of Japan provides assistance for Kohat Hospital

Government of Japan has been providing assistance to Al-Shifa Trust for the last 15 years. In the past, various development projects were successfully conducted at Rawalpindi and Sukkur hospitals. Hospital laundry machine donated way back in 1992 by Government of Japan and still working perfectly is a testimony to this. This time, 07 million PKR assistance has been provided to strengthen the eye surgical treatment facilities at our Kohat hospital. The agreement was signed at a recently held ceremony at Embassy of Japan. His Excellency Mr. Chihiro Atsumi, Ambassador of Japan and Mr. Jahan Dad Khan President Al-Shifa Trust were the signatories.

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The construction of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Muzaffarabad is now almost near completion. Currently we are in the process of procurement of equipment and furniture. Spread over 50,000 square feet, the hospital will be a 150- bed most modern eye hospital in whole of Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas. Being developed on the lines of our main Rawalpindi hospital, it will have the capacity to manage about 600 patients of all types of eye diseases and to undertake 60 operations daily. It will give employment to over 150 persons and will be hub of outreach eye care services to whole of AJK. Within 10 years it will become a center of excellence for the region providing post-graduate training programs for doctors, eye care to almost 5 million people, facilities for applied research for prevention of blindness and serving as a base hospital for multiple vision centers in remote areas of AJK and FANA.

At a recently held meeting with Chief Secretary, Govt. of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has promised to expedite the work on construction of road links and water supply.

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Work on Al-Shifa Self-Reliance Tower

To attain self reliance, Al-Shifa Trust has launched a multi-purpose, multi story self-reliance tower costing over Rs. 1 billion on the Al-Shifa commercial land available adjacent to GT road. Architectural plan has been approved by Construction Committee. The designing of the project has been assigned to a well reputed firm, “Engineering Associates” who has vast experience of designing such projects in Pakistan & abroad. Currently an experienced construction firm is being short listed to undertake the construction work. The construction is likely to start by early 2010 & will take about 2 years to complete. The tower will have shopping Mall, corporate offices, IT complex & a motel. On successful launching of first tower, three more similar towers will be constructed so as to make Al-Shifa self reliant by the year 2020. Al-Shifa Trustees Mr. Mohsin Hafeez and Mr. Javed Mian have taken upon themselves to supervise various phases of this project.

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President Al-Shifa to visit Gulf

In order to meet various chapters and friends of Al-Shifa Trust, President Al-Shifa has planned a visit to UAE and Saudi Arabia from 25th October to 15th November 2009. For the convenience of our friends in the Gulf, the program is as follows:-

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Patient Column

A person may come across different kinds of physical disabilities, but none is as painful and distressing as blindness. Mr. AZ, a 42 years old middle class worker from South Punjab met an unfortunate accident and lost vision in both of his eyes. One eye was completely damaged beyond any repair. The other eye had a chance, but it needed corneal grafting as the only option. The cost of around 60,000 PKR were beyond his means. Somehow he managed it through some borrowing and donation, and got himself operated in one of the major urban center hospitals. Unfortunately, the surgery did not succeed and the graft was rejected. All hopes to see again vanished. Life became meaningless for AZ and one day he decided to finish it. He attempted to commit suicide and fortunately failed. As the luck would have it, his friends somehow got him into Al-Shifa Trust eye hospital Rawalpindi where he was first seen and reassured by Prof. Wajid Ali Khan and provided thorough counseling by the patient counselor. Due to great dearth of donor corneas, there is a long waiting list for patients in need of grafting. However due to special circumstances of Mr. AZ and his mental state, it was decided to do corneal grafting on emergency basis with no cost to the patient. Finding himself between hard rock and sea, Prof. Wajid attempted to replace an already rejected corneal graft with a healthy donor cornea. The risk of failure in such cases is high and a failure could have meant loss of life for Mr. AZ. But God came to his rescue. Today, 2 years after successful corneal grafting, Mr. AZ can see and is living a normal independent life.

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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
2. 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)

1. HSBC Bank AuchinLeck House, Birmingham:  Account Number = 40-1108 (sort code)-41311565 (Account number)
2. In USA
3. National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), 100 Wall Street, 21st Floor New York, NY 10005:            Account Number = 52152578
4. Al-Shifa Foundation of North America: 475 Wall Street, Princeton, NJ 08540.                       Tel: (609) 279-1400, Email : [email protected] , website: www.afnausa.org
5. In Pakistan, donations can be sent directly to Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Jhelum Road, Rawalpindi or to: -
   1. Askari Commercial Bank Limited: Account No.780101017153
   2. Habib Bank Ltd. Account No. 1236-00355425-01
   3. United Bank Ltd. Account No. 011-0228-4
   4. Allied Bank Ltd. Account No. 01-200-3589-7

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.

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, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 51 5487820-25, Fax: 0092 51 5487827
Email: [email protected]
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Railway Road, Sukkur, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 71 5612766, 0092 71 5615466 Fax: 0092 71 5613453
Email: [email protected]
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, KDA, Kohat, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 922 515686, 0092 922 515710:  Fax: 0092 922 515668
Email: [email protected]

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