I want to share this excellent video showing several examples of health delivery at a distance and its benefits to patients and staff. After watching, you may want to read an article about the telehealth facility at Craig, which gives some more information and a nursing perspective.
As being daughter, grand daughter, niece and wife of defence forces officer, I came across so many stories of devotion & self-sacrifices that have arisen due to the situation in Swat. And every time I break into tears when I think of the families they leave behind. I want to share that how our brave soldiers and brave sons of the soil sacrificed their lives for Pakistan while fighting against Terrorists in Swat. Our soldiers are not only currently engaged in battling the enemy but also in supporting the displaced people of the region who had to migrate due to the conflict. And what else could be done better than sacrificing their own lives.
Few days back, I received a text message from a friend of mine, it was as follows,
“In the vollies of bullets, in the thunder of bombs, there are a few who just do not stop, knowing that they are surrounded by death, knowing that they could leave their wives widows and children orphans, but they just keep on moving because something is pumping in their hearts, and flowing through their veins known as honor, devotion, motivation. Death over surrender. This is why they say ‘Death before disgrace’. Pak Army Zindabad.”
I thought it is a message from any patriot. Later I came to know that I was half right. It was a not just a support message but final will and testament. This was the last message sent by Captain Bilal Zafar aged 26 years. He embraced Shahadat at Dir on 17 May 2009. May Allah rest his soul.
Another incident regarding four SSG heroes came to my knowledge. Those SSG heroes killed eight militants before they were shot. Captured by the TTP’s fake Taliban. Eight Taliban entered their cell with ropes to tie then up for the slaughter. The four heroes, unarmed, engaged the eight terrorists and killed them in mortal combat. Roused by the noise, two terrorists entered the cell armed with weapons and sprayed gunfire over the SSG heroes and they embraced Shahadat. May Allah keep them in Heaven and in His Divine Light. You may read the full story at,
http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/ssg-heroes-killed-
eight-talibans-before-they-were-shot/
On May 20 Maj Abid Majeed Malik laid down his life during Operation Rah-i-Rast near Matta, in Swat leaving his wife and two children behind. The major fell while trying to evacuate his injured comrades.Just look at the shaheed major's face, fresh and smiling.
“I couldn’t see her like this; I had broken down into tears. My mother was half-living half-dead. I was met with screams of my sister who was out of control of almost everyone. She wasn’t accepting the fact that her love has left her on her birthday. She kept screaming, “You guys are lying to me. He is not dead. He cannot leave me. He promised me to celebrate 93 birthdays with me............ “
These were the feelings of a brother whose sister lost her husband in the Operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’ against Militants in Swat. Capt. Omerzeb, like many soldiers sacrificed his life for the greater good of his nation. Two families were destroyed when one soldier died. 14 hearts wept dry of blood when one heart stopped beating on the 21st of May. All sacrifices in the name of a peaceful, safe, terrorism-free country.
Read more on http://thecurrentaffairs.com/capt-omerzeb-shaheed-a-brave-soldier.html
I would also like to quote an excerpt from a letter by a wife of an officer of the
Pakistan Army currently serving in the Operation Rah-e-Haq, sent to Mr. Zaid Hamid and published on PakistanKaKhudaHafiz.wordpress.com,
“Our soldiers unlike our enemies do not fear death because they know that they are serving for the cause of a nation “PAKISTAN’ which was created in the name of Allah. And because of that, no matter how many hurdles India has thrown in its way, ALLAH HI PAKISTAN KA HAFIZ HAI.”
You may read the full letter of this brave daughter of Islam at,
http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/letter-from-a-ghazis-wife/
May Allah keep her husband, our brother, and a brave soldier of Islam in His protection and strengthen him to do his duty to the fullest.
These soldiers will always have a special place. We may be silent
and not able to express our thoughts eloquently but that will not diminish the highest regards we have for these men of honor. Our soldiers are doing their part and now its upon us to take it on and give a final brunt. We shall never forgo the sacrifices of our shuhuda!!!
These are few of the stories of Swat operation and we will come to know the full details of the bravery of our brothers, when the air clears. I implore you to do whatever is possible to help our brothers and sisters in the Northern Areas in this hard time. Donate as much as you can to share our IDPs loss and to stand with our brave soldiers who are fighting for a noble cause.
Within a week of the influx of Buner/Swat refugees into Mardan district, Todd's medical team was active and out in the field. Among other destinations, one of their mobile teams made their way to the town of Rustum to our healthcare facility (a few kilometers from Buner border). They are currently based out of our UM Hospital as part of our relief operations in the area. CDRS has not only brought with them much needed medicines but also medical doctors who are treating patients not only at our facility but have setup outreach medical camps in various villages in and around the town of Rustum where refugees are located. Rustum is 200 Km North of Islamabad and an hours drive from the city of Mardan.
In the month of May, they have treated over thousands patients in rural Mardan during various medical camps and at our facility. What's more, each Internally Displaced Person (IDP) treated has been provided with free medicines. The kids have also received toys and mothers given baby formula milk which is required in such dire times.
NUST SEECS college is always ahead of other universities in innovation, research and now philanthropy in Pakistan. The NUST Social Entrepreneur Club (NSEC), ACM and NVC have banded together to produce Hygiene kits for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in rural Mardan near the town of Rustum; an area which is currently under served by the government and development agencies in regards to relief efforts.
Since Mid May 2009, the students actively collected and put together over 200 hygiene kits for the poor and needy. This past weekend, they distributed them to the refugees in two remote villages namely Jamder and Jallar, six kilometers from the town of Rustum and 200Km north of Islamabad. The kits, as explained on their blog, contained basic hygiene items like Soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, water purification tablets, anti-mosquito coils, and band-aid.
Three of the students, namely Sarfraz, Yusuf, Iftikhar took precious time out of their studies and traveled to our village from Islamabad to distribute these items personally to the IDPs. These kits do not cost much. NUST students estimated that it is no more than PKR 200/Kit. Besides, most of the items on the list are available at home so many students simply donated an item from home to make the kits possible.
To see 19 year old students working closely to put these kits together and then distribute themselves to the poor and needy is a humbling as well as a truly inspiring experience. More of such examples should be followed nation-wide. The students plan to come back in the coming weeks with even more items to distribute including more hygiene kits and food items. So stay tuned for their efforts.
FAST, GIKI, LUMS, IBA and other universities should take heed from this effort and lets hope more such gestures are replicated nation-wide.
Picture Gallery of their efforts can be seen here
NUST Students at UM Hospital
Dr. Nauman Siddiqui, of Disaster Management Center in collaboration with DRIP (Disaster Relief by Irish and Pakistanis) lead a team of doctors to our region which included two female physicians. 50% of the patients that we are treating are females and therefore, these lady doctors were extremely critical and vital for providing quality care to females in our area. We were able to treat over 300 patients in three different villages (Kotarpan, Rustum and Zahidabad) during the medical camp.
DRIP and DMC medical doctors team was back again in our area in June and assisted us in treating another batch of 200+ patients at UM hospital. Once again, DRIP/DMC provided us with free medicines for the IDPs that is helping our doctors continue to provide quality care to the poor. This time round, the team went beyond healthcare in providing food and traditional water buckets (Garha) to the IDPs.
DRIP has also joined hands with us in starting a free kitchen for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and are now preparing meals for at least 100 people daily. This is the first free kitchen of its kind in the area and therefore a significant improvement over the current reliance on local community to feed the IDPs in the area.
Survey Conducted by UM Healthcare Trust of IDPsIt is very sad to see our brothers being refugees in our own homeland. Tens of thousands of Pakistanis are daily escaping from the killing fields of Swat and other areas. Pakistan is now confronting its largest-ever internal refugee population. By global standards this is the largest refugee issue that has erupted in the last fifteen years.
The refugees are on the front-line of sacrificing for the defense of Pakistan. For now they do not have their daily belongings, no livelihood, no schools,no medical facilities,no normal household comforts, no toilets, no kitchens. According to them it was easy to have a sleep in the sound of bombshells than sleeping in the camps. 'Out of the frying pan into the fire’ would better describe the situation of helpless people called the Internally Displaced People.
The trauma of the refugees is endless. The Swati people, including females and children, reached Mardan with their blistered and swollen feet due to excessive walk but unfortunately they are still awaiting our response.
No coordination mechanism is in place. Every NGO and GO is working in their own style. More families have arrived in the camp but there is no more space for them. There is no body to guide the new comers about other camps established for IDPs.
As a nation what we need is national response to this refugee crisis. We must appreciate the fact that the people of Swat/Malakand as sacrificing on the frontlines for ensuring the security of Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan, its citizens, its values, and its Constitution and its state.
Due to this emergency situation in Mardan, our Tele-healthcare team, in collaboration with its stakeholders (NUST, APPNA, UMTrust, among others) has launched a massive healthcare relief effort for the refugees streaming in from the Buner & Swat district.
Our hospital UMTrust is located in Zahidabad at the border of Buner District and therefore, we have seen a huge influx of refugees in our area these past few weeks. In fact, we have estimated close to 200,000 refugees in a 10KM radius of our facility. We have treated our 10,000 patient in rural Mardan in 120 days of regular operations. This number is rising as more IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) cross into Mardan District.
We are also distributing free medicines and extending free healthcare advise and diagnosis to all the IDPs. Our medical staff is making rounds in the area to treat patients on site if they are unable to visit our medical facility in village Zahidabad, which is 4 km from the town of Rustum in NWFP, Pakistan.
In this hour of the need for refugees we need your support as we are running desperately short on medical supplies. No international non-profit is operating in that area and thus their limited resources are under a lot of stress.
A photo stream of our efforts can be seen here at View Pictures of Buner Refugees
The list of required items can be seen at: list
Please donate generously to the cause at UMTrust or at Tele-healthcare.
We are sharing some updates that we have accomplished in the recent past regarding IDP relief in rural Mardan district. So far, we are the only non-profit operating around the town of Rustum providing any medical relief. There are an estimated 100,000 IDPs in and around our facility with no doctor or nurse (barring our facility) working in that area.
Medical Relief Camp with DRIP and Disaster Managment Center, Abbotabad
May 16, 2009: we held medical camps for Buner Refugees in collaboration with Disaster Management Center (DMC), Abbotabad and DRIP (DISASTER RELIEF BY IRISH & PAKISTANIS) at various villages around our medical facility in village Zahidabad. A total of over 300 patients were treated. These IDPs were given free medicines. This was the first medical camp in and around are area where over 100,000 IDPs are stranded. No other organization is working in our area for medical relief. All concentration of medical services are in the city of Mardan and not here.
Ambulance Service
May 18:Each day, we encounter numerous patients that need to be operated upon or taken to a bigger medical facility for further treatment. Dr. Noaman Siddiqui (DMC) immediately connected us with Edhi Foundation. The Edhi Foundation has now joined hands with UM Healthcare in providing free ambulance service to the poor and needy including IDPs. So far, each day, these ambulances ferry many injured or seriously ill to the city of Mardan (an hour drive away) to a tertiary care facility for further treatment. Thus saving lives each day.
CDRS Pakistan Medical Relief
May 18: As our urgent call for doctors was sent out, CDRS Pakistan responded by sending us a doctor with medicines to for IDPs. This has reduced our work load (200 patients a day) on one doctor at our facility by 50%. CDRS team also works closely with us in conducting medical camps in and around our facility. So far, we have treated over 1500 patients with their collaboration.
Below is a small video of the IDP relief efforts done by UM Healthcare Trust
In this time of crisis where millions of people in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan have been rendered homeless, UM healthcare is embarking on a much bigger mission and objective than its original mandate. With the influx of over hundred thousand refugees in close proximity to our medical facility in village Zahidabad (located close to the border of Buner District with Mardan), we are now even assisting them in securing food rations, shelter and even clothings.
We are in the process of forming strategic alliances with other organizations working in disaster relief. So far, Edhi Foundation and individuals like you have come forward to help us distribute food rations and clothings to these IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons). Edhi Foundation, this past Wednesday (May 20, 2009) distributed 170 bags of wheat to needy families that we had identified working with the local community leaders. Doctors for Relief of Irish and Pakistan (DRIP) have also stepped forward to collaborate with us on a first regular free kitchen for the IDP community. At the same time, UM healthcare, with the help of the community, recently setup a lunger (free kitchen) for the displaced where they could come and eat as much as they want all day long.
d rations), APPNA (medicines), Disaster Management Center Abbotabad (Medicines & Medical Camp), DRIP (Medical Camp and food rations), CDRS (Medical Camp and medicines), Mumtaz Bakhtawar Memorial Trust Hospital (Medicines and Medical Camp) and ordinary citizens who are helping and collaborating with us to achieve our ambitious goals.
Sometimes little things can make a big impact. Our small hospital (UM Hospital), which is nothing more than an OPD (Out patient facility), in rural village of Zahidabad (Mardan District) and treats around 150 patients a day, occasionally, receives serious trauma cases. In the past, we would do minor ER and then refer the patients to a bigger hospital in the city of Mardan (an hour drive away). But last week, Edhi Foundation changed all that.
Dr. Qasim and his team managed to get the patients stable and then were quickly loaded in the two ambulances, available through Edhi Foundation, and sent to the city for further investigation and treatment. Our paramedics accompanied the injured through the long journey. Cases like these are now able to avail free ambulance service to the city in a proper vehicle with paramedics on board. In the past, we would simply order a taxi and load the injured into it before sending them off to the city on their own.
This is probably the first time in the history of this region (Sudham Valley) that any kind of regular Ambulance service is made available to the local community and that too free of cost. Considering that almost 200,000 people live in this area and majority live on two dollars a day or less, this is surely a great gift from Edhi Foundation.
