A Successful Medical Camp in Mardan

This past weekend (December 27, 2008), UM Healthcare Trust organized yet another successful medical camp for the poor at its Zahidabad facility (200 KM north of Islamabad) in rural Mardan District of NWFP province of Pakistan.

The patients began trickling in since eight in the morning and the flow reached its peak by noon. Over 500 patients were treated by qualified doctors at the facility. The camp lasted till 3pm in the afternoon.


Majority of the poor residing in rural Mardan live on less then one dollar a day with only one member (usually the male) who has any kind of work/job. They are usually farmers and/or full time housewives. Therefore, procuring expensive medicines and paying exorbitant doctors fees are close to impossible. Keeping this in view, a token fee of PKR 30/patient (US$0.40 cents/patient) was charged and free and subsidized medicines were also provided to the needy patients on the spot.

We had wonderful team of young volunteer doctors who specifically drove in from Peshawar to spend a day treating the poor. As the slide show indicates, over 50% of the patients were females and 30% were male. The rest of the 20% were children up to the age of 12.

The event would not have been possible without the tremendous support we always get from the residents of the village of Zahidabad. Ashfaq, Ishtiaq, Zahid Bhai, Farman Bhai, Sher Akbar Baba, Sajid, Jehangir, Rashid and many many others who worked tirelessly for days to make it successful. If it were not for the support from the local community we would not be able to make such events as successful as they usually are.

Dr. Asif Sardar (Medical Officer Incharge) and his medical team also put in late hours to make sure that they were well prepared to treat a huge crowd of patients that was expected to pour in on December 27, 2008.

UM Healthcare Trust (http://www.umtrust.org) was established as a non-profit in memory of late Mrs Umrana Mumtaz as part of her last will and testament. The facility provides subsidized medical care to the poor and needy in the rural district of Mardan. This is also the home of Pakistan's first rural tele-healthcare center which is being developed in collaboration with NUST and APPNA.