1 Prime Minister of Pakistan inaugurates Muzaffarabad hospital

2 AST Muzaffarabad holds free eye camps in AJK

3 714 million Budget approved by BoT

4 Employees’ pay scales revised

5 President of Al-Shifa Trust makes fortnightly review of Al-Shifa Hospitals Management

6 Sukkur hospitals holds successful surgical camps in RYK and Sadiqabad

7 Al-Shifa introduces latest surgical technology for the first time in the history of Kohat

8 Lions Club International approves project for training

9 Fred Hollows Foundation projects start at Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad

10 Embassy of Japan approves project for Muzaffarabad

11 President AST reaches out to INGOs for support

12 PIDSA delegation visits AST

13 Successful Zakat campaign

14 Patients’ Column

15 Progress Report

16 Upcoming events

17 Appeal

Prime Minister Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani inaugurated on Saturday the 08 October, fourth eye hospital of Al-Shifa Trust at Muzaffarabad, the first such facility in eight districts of Azad Kashmir.

The Prime Minister unveiled the inauguration plaque of the eye hospital. He was accompanied by AJK President Sardar Yaqub, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed and Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Mian Manzoor Wattoo. Turkish ambassador to Pakistan was also present.

Near the Rara Camp overlooking the Neelum and Jhelum rivers, the hospital has been constructed with a cost of Rs 250 million. It spans over 60 canal of land, provided free of cost by the AJK government. The facility is an outcome of financial assistance by philanthropists and donors of Al-Shifa Trust.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the Prime Minister said Al-Shifa Trust is playing a leading role as non-governmental organization to assist the federal and provincial governments in prevention and control of blindness.

With the realization of health costs rising rapidly, he urged the donors to continue their financial support. He expressed gratitude to the government of Japan for supporting Al-Shifa in procurement of modern equipment for surgery. Gilani said the government had been proactively engaged in reviving educational and health facilities besides undertaking the rehabilitation of the earthquake affected persons in AJK.

President Al-Shifa Trust Lt. Gen (retired) Hamid Javaid apprised the Prime Minister that the hospital can cater up to 1,000 patients, with convenience of 100 operations a day.    He said the hospital will soon be uplinked with other three Al-Shifa hospitals through teleophthalmology link, He appreciated the generous help of federal government and also thanked the government of Japan and many other donors who contributed significantly towards this hospital.

Dr Fazlur Rahman, the personal physician of Saudi King Khalid for 20 years has donated over Rs. 40 million for this hospital. He came all the way from Riyadh to participate. He paid rich tributes to the founder of Al-Shifa Trust Lt Gen (late) Jahandad Khan. He urged philanthropists to donate generously for the hospital.

Later, Prime Minister Gilani gave away souvenirs to major donors which included Dr. Fazalur Rahman from Riyadh, Haji Sabir from Manchester and Mr. Akhlaq from Dubai who could not attend due to his personal commitments.

Later the Prime Minister visited various sections of the hospital including operation theatre and the wards. He enquired about the health of the patients. The Prime Minister’s day-long visit to AJK was in connection with the sixth anniversary of the 7.6 magnitude massive earthquake in 2005 that hit Azad Kashmir killing 83,000 people and rendering millions homeless.

Earlier Al-Shifa Trust President Lieutenant General (Retd) Hamid Javaid while addressing a meeting held to finalize the arrangements for inauguration of the hospital told reporters that Al-Shifa Trust is already running three state-of-the-art eye hospitals at Rawalpindi, Kohat and Sukkur and with formal inauguration of the facility at Muzaffarabad, the number of its hospitals has gone up to four. He said that the hospital will become a centre of excellence in the region within 10 years, providing postgraduate training to doctors and facilities for applied research to prevent blindness as well as eye care to almost five million people. It will also serve as a base hospital for multiple vision centres in remote areas of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

A total of 850 patients were provided free checkup facility and medicine while 19 others were referred to Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital (ASTEH) at Muzaffarabad for surgery as the Trust held a week-long free eye camps in Azad Kashmir to observe ‘World Sight Day’. The camps were held at Chehla Bandi and Garhi Dupatta

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Al-Shifa Board of Trustees approved a record budget of Rs. 714 million for the year 2011-2012. Following are the highlights of this budget.

• After taking into account the internal receipts and fiscal expenditure, net fiscal deficit of Rs. 130 million is expected.
• External receipts of Rs. 275 million are expected from grants, donations and zakat collection.
• Total capital expenditure of Rs. 367 million has been planned.
• A total of 18% more internal income is projected this year as against the previous year because of the following: -
• • The charges for latest technology for cataract surgery (phaco) have been further reduced to popularize this technique thus increasing the income
  • Quality of service has been further improved which is expected to result in 10% increase in number of patients.
  • Private practice by Al-Shifa doctors now launched in all the four Al-Shifa hospitals will further add to this internal income.
• On the other hand the revenue expenditure of the Trust has increased by 31% mainly because of the commissioning of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Muzaffarabad, 15% increase in the cost of consumables/medicines and substantial increase in the cost of utility services as well as due to revised salary structure of all the employees of the Trust Hospitals.
• The target for external receipts has been scaled up by 22% through planned widening of the donor base and looking for new partnerships with INGOs.

The President also met local notables including MPA, Mr. Noman Sheikh, who specially visited Al-Shifa Sukkur and assured all possible help from Government to strength the reputed Al-Shifa institution. Mr. Sheikh took keen interest in recently completed training institute at Sukkur hospital and hoped that it will help a lot in providing skilled professionals in the field of eye care in this area.

Employees’ pay scales revised

Immediately after taking over as President of Al-Shifa Trust, Mr. Hamid Javaid made the welfare of Al-Shifa employees as his top priority. Consequently, after thorough deliberations and analyzing multiple market surveys, Board of Trustees decided to revise the salary structure of all the employees of Al-Shifa Trust eye hospitals. As a result an increase of 25%-100% in the salaries has been sanctioned.

Recently, it was decided by President Al-Shifa to hold fortnightly meetings of Hospital Management Committee (HMC). HMC meetings are meant to take stock of the existing situation and implement measures to improve the working of hospitals. The exercise has started showing results and has greatly helped in timely decision making for smooth functioning of hospitals

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Sukkur hospital holds successful surgical camps in RYK. Sadiqabad and Muzaffargarh

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital regularly conducts surgical camps in far flung areas. These include not only interior of Sindh, but also adjoining areas of Baluchistan and South Punjab. Recently three surgical camps were held at Rahim Yar Khan, Sadiqabad and Muzaffargarh districts of south Punjab where about 2,000 patients were provided with eye medicines and over 400 operations were conducted. These camps also conduct screening of children where eye specs are provided free of cost or at very subsidized rate. Senior government officials also observed the working of these camps and highly appreciated the dedication and commitment of staff.

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Al-Shifa introduces latest surgical technology for the first time in the history of Kohat

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Kohat achieves a landmark. For the first time in the history of Kohat, latest technique for treatment of cataract surgery- Phacoemulsification- has been carried out by one of our eye surgeons Dr. Irfan Khattak. This technique known colloquially as laser surgery (a misnomer) amongst the community employs latest machine which liquefies the hard cataract through ultrasonic fragmentation obviating the need for larger incision. In this way a stitchless, painless procedure is done for cataract where visual recovery is almost instantaneous. The introduction of this technique in Kohat will go a long way in provision of good quality of eye care and surgery.

Lions Clubs International is supporting a permanent project for training of ophthalmic midlevel personnel (OMP) at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi. So far over 300 OMP have been trained with their support. The recent project will support the training of another 70 OMP next year. The OMP trained under this project come from all over Pakistan and after completion of training are employed in both public and private sectors including Lions Hospitals.

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With the support of Fred Hollows Foundation, multiple projects have been simultaneously started at our Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad Hospitals. The projects at Rawalpindi are as follows:-

1. Capacity building of Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology through one year training abroad of our pediatric ophthalmologist and 3 months training of two optometrists in pediatric optometry.
2. Short-term orientation observership of district ophthalmologists in pediatric ophthalmology from four districts of Pakistan.
3. Training of some cadres of OMP

The projects started at Muzaffarabad are as follows: -

1. Screening of school children of Muzaffarabad for refractive errors
2. Partial support for cataract surgery

These projects were launched recently after an MoU was signed between Al-Shifa Trust and Fred Hollow Foundation on the occasion of visit of delegation from Sydney headquarters, Australia. Accompanied by Dr. Gilani, Ms Virginia Sarah, Director of International Programs, and Ms Rashin Choudhry, Sydney based Program Coordinator for Pakistan and Afghanistan visited to finalize the partnership with Al-Shifa.

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In a bid to further boost the support of Al-Shifa Trust by INGOs, new avenues for partnership are being explored. Recently President AST, Mr. Hamid Javaid has initiated contacts with different INGOs working for prevention and control of blindness in Pakistan. These include Sight Savers International UK, International Center for Eye Education (ICEE) Australia and CBM /CHEF, Pakistan. It may be noted the ICEE has recently opened its regional office for South East Asia and East Mediterranean in Islamabad.

Our readers may recall that Al-Shifa Trust has launched Tele-Ophthalmology Project in Pakistan for the first time designed to extend the high quality eye care throughout Pakistan by linking all the four AST Hospitals in first phase and linking other districts in second phase. This project is supported by Govt of Italy under Debt-Swap Agreement (PIDSA). Recently a consultant, Mr. Romeria Rodriguez from Italy visited Al-Shifa Trust Rawalpindi along with Project Director Mrs Nasheeta Mohsin of EAD. He was impressed to see such a facility in Pakistan.

Patient Column

Where there is a will, there is a way: Army officers donate their eyes for poor patients

Abbas from Dera Murad Jamali
“Hello doctor, there is a call from Senator Mr.------”, The Senator comes on the line and doctor takes the call. This is beginning of the story of Abbas, a 4 year child from Dera Murad Jamali, a remote underdeveloped suburban area of Baluchistan.  In fact story does not start from here, this being the last episode (hopefully) of a saga of poor parents with very little for sustenance of their family running from pillar to post to beg for the life of their lovely child Abbas (not his real name).
Abbas, a four year child developed a swelling around his left eye in matter of days. In a village where hardly any painkiller is available, there was no treatment for this child. The parents took the child from one place to another and finally received the devastating news in Quetta that the child might have one of the most lethal forms of childhood cancer which affects the eye and takes the life if not treated in time. The parents were shattered. Not having means even to transport the child to major facility, they could not think of bearing the huge expense for treatment of his child. Someone took them to a Senator from the same region who took pains to trace the right facility for free treatment of this child. Finally the child was operated at the Department of Orbit and Oculoplastics at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi and by His Grace is free of cancer now.

Mr. Azhar Karim at Light House
Mr. Karim is a highly educated person who is now settled in Canada. An incurable disease resulted in severe visual impairment to his both eyes during his early life years. Undaunted by the handicap, he struggled hard and got very good education and a respectable place in society. Through a friend, he came to know and visited the facility of Light House at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi. He was highly impressed and amazed at such a wonderful facility for visually challenged persons. He said that non many facilities around the world have such state of the art equipment which is available at Al-Shifa. He committed that he will let everyone who need this kind of support know about the facility and create awareness about this facility in North America.

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Current Progress Report

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Important UpComing Events

Important Coming Events At Al-Shifa

1. Training at PIO Sukkur
2. Al-Shifa Pharmaceuticals construction
3. Tele-Ophthalmology link with Kohat

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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!
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: -

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
6. Bank Al-Falah Ltd. The Mall Branch, Mall Road Rawalpindi. Account No. 2906752

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.

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: 475 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)

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], [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], [email protected]
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, KDA, Kohat, Pakistan
Tel: 0092 922 515686, 0092 922 515710:  Fax: 0092 922 515668
Email: [email protected], [email protected] 
Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Ambore Camp, Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Tel: 0092 5822432159, 0092 5822432144, Fax: 0092 51 5487827
Email: [email protected], [email protected] 

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