UAE | General
Pakistanis urged to donate eyes after death to help give gift of sight to poor
Lt General (retd) Jahan Dad Khan, president of Al Shifa Trust said that donating eyes is still a social and religious taboo in Pakistan and the Al Shifa Trust has to import corneas from the US to treat blind people.
- By Ashfaq Ahmed, Chief Reporter, Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 November 7, 2009
- Image Credit: K.K. AYUB, Gulf News
- Sajjad Ashraf, a delegate, Lt Gen (retd) Jahan Dad Khan, president of Al Shifa Trust, and Pakistan Consul General Amjad Ali Sher at the eye-care function in Dubai.
Dubai: It takes as little as Dh2,600 to restore the eye-sight of a visually impaired person at Al Shifa Eye Trust Hospitals in Pakistan and the treatment is provided free of charge to those who cannot afford to pay.
"And this cost can be reduced considerably if Pakistanis start donating their eyes after death," said Lt General (retd) Jahan Dad Khan, president of Al Shifa Trust, which runs three eye hospitals in Pakistan.
He said that donating eyes is still a social and religious taboo in Pakistan and the Al Shifa Trust has to import corneas from the US to treat blind people.
"I appeal to Pakistanis to donate their eyes after death to help millions of others see the world and live a normal life," he added.
He said some three million people including more than half a million children are totally blind in Pakistan and about 20 per cent of the 170-million population are suffering from eye ailments. The numbers are growing and the Trust hospitals are facing greater challenges in providing free treatment.
Dubai function
Speaking at a function organised by Abdul Sattar Pardesi, a prominent Pakistani welfare worker in Dubai, Khan said 70 per cent of the patients at the hospital are treated free of charge and 25 per cent gets subsidised treatment and five per cent are fully charged for their treatment.
"Your contribution means the gift of sight of someone in need," he told a big gathering in Dubai.
Al Shifa Trust is a not-for-profit and non-political organisation.
It is committed to providing eye care and treatment mainly to the underprivileged and the poor.
The Trust is able to meet only 30 to 40 per cent of its expenses from its own sources. The remainder is covered by Zakat, donations and support from philanthropists.
It has various chapters and friends of the Al Shifa Trust around the world.
"Better community outreach and preventive care are needed to check the increasing number of people suffering from eye diseases," said Khan, who is visiting the Gulf countries to meet friends of the Trust. He said that an increasing number of patients from the UAE and other Gulf countries were going to the Al Shifa Trust Hospital for eye treatments because it has top-class facilities and is well equipped.
"We also provide boarding facilities for relatives and friends accompanying the patients," he said.
Shifa received the coveted international Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations development organisations prize in Istanbul last month.
The award recognises significant contributions to the welfare of humanity around the world.
To help: Aims
The aims and objectives of the Trust are to provide free treatment to poor people suffering from eye ailments, to provide mobile ophthalmic services, preventive and community ophthalmology organised with follow-up supervised eye camps and to rehabilitate the visually impaired.
So far, five million patients have been treated at the Al Shifa hospital in the past 20 years and about 500,000 have undergone surgery.
For more details and to help poor patients, visit www.alshifa-eye.org.pk
Would you like to give donations to the hospital? How often do you get an eye test?
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