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.

Prevalence of Skin Diseases among rural Mardan Patients

This is a synopsis of a study recently conducted among the patients being treated at UM Healthcare Trust hospital in rural Mardan (Village Zahidabad) during the months of September and October, 2008. The study was supervised by Dr. Asif Sardar, Medical Officer Incharge at UM Healthcare. This is a first of its kind study in rural Mardan.

Currently, the medical world has classified over 2000 different skin diseases in both communicable and non communicable forms. As compared to non-communicable, communicable diseases can be easily curtailed through public awareness and dissemination of health information. For example, skin infections, scabies, bacterial and those with viral origins. Many skin diseases in rural areas are associated with socioeconomic factors, like unclean water, no proper hygiene, crowded living conditions, lack of proper latrines etc. In such a scenario, transmissible diseases comprise the bulk of skin diseases (73.9% in our study) with the children being affected the most.

In the months of September and October, over 2,000 patients were treated at UM Healthcare Trust hospital. The results showed that 410 (11.16%) patients suffered from dermatological health problems. Off which 260 (63.41%) were females and 150 (36.59%) males with a female to male ratio of 1.7:1. Off these patients, 178 (43.41%) had cutaneous infections and 234 (57.07%) had non+infectious dermatoses. Few patients had more than one dermatoses. Fungal infection was the commonest infection seen (22.92%) and eczemas took an upper hand in non+infectious group (32.19%).

Majority of the patients with skin diseases originated from one village 2KM north of Village Zahidabad.

Celebrate Eid ul Adha with Bajaur and Swat Refugees

As most of you are aware the persistent bombardment by the US military Drones and Pakistan Military war machinery in Bajaur and Swat Valley has caused an exodus of over 250,000 civilians from those regions of NWFP, Pakistan. These shepherds, farmers, women and children are forced to run for their lives and have taken shelter into various refugee camps spread across the country. Since the government does not recognize them as a disaster, therefore, these destitute people have received very little aid since their uprooting. Most of the assistance they have received is through occasional support from the local communities that have housed them during this man made disaster.

On the third day of Eid ul Adha (December 12, 2008) , UM Healthcare Trust will host a lunch for the Bajaur and Swat refugees in Sheikh Yaseen Camp just outside Mardan city. There are around 5,000 refugees housed in this makeshift camp. We are requesting everyone to share this day with the refugees by contributing towards a Luncheon. The following will be arranged for the meal:

Arrangement of Qurbani for the lunch
Arrangement of cooking of Rice & Meat Dish for the 5,000 people
Distribution of the lunch among the inhabitants of the camp

The cost of qurbani in Mardan would be PKR 7,500 or US$100/goat. The total cost of the lunch is estimated to be PKR 500,000 US$6,500). Please donate openly for this lunch in any amount that you feel you can spare.

For a field report on this refugee camp, please read our blog titled: Plight of Refugees

All those interested in donating please contact us at the following phone/email addresses

Contact:
Name: Atif Mumtaz
Email: donate @ umtrust . org
Phone: +92-300-854 0662