NHF THANKS DONORS PAKISTAN CHINA MEDICAL CONFERENCE IN KARACHI SOCH ORGANIZES ORIENTATION FOR NEW FIRST YEAR

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1 Editor-in-Chief: Tanveer Imam NHF THANKS DONORS National Health Forum had a successful year Many projects which were taken up by NHF came to completion or are in progress. These projects were only possible because of generous contributions made by our friends and colleagues is a new year and we hope to bring in new ideas and to help more indigent population of Pakistan. Projects like palliative care, looking into first Urdu Nursing reference book almost to its completion and looking into helping young physicians from rural areas of Pakistan. Also, NHF is committed to education and promoting research; which will continue in year Year 2016, will be the year to more focus on human resources and increase awareness and education. Volume IX Number 1, March 2016 PAKISTAN CHINA MEDICAL CONFERENCE IN KARACHI SOCH ORGANIZES ORIENTATION FOR NEW FIRST YEAR Serve Our Civil Hospital (SOCH) organized orientation on January 6th for Dowites 21, to familiarize them with our organization under the leadership of Haya Qaisar. Dr. Naseem Shekhani, Dr. Amjad Siraj and Dr. Imran Ghangro also attended the orientation. Prof. Amjad Memon spoke and urge students to participate to be volunteers. SOCH helps keeps the wards clean and help in infection control of the hospital. As the nature of work they do, they do not accept Zakat. NHF HELPS YOUNG PHYSICIANS FROM RURAL PAKISTAN On follow up of NHF announcement Last November. National Health Forum, Inc along with a team to look into logistics of helping Young Graduates from rural areas of Pakistan. Deserving Candidate should be of Pakistani Medical College in public sector. These candidates should not have participated in self-funded scheme. They should have applied on open merit seats. The maximum amount awarded will be 2,500 per candidate. At present the team consist of Drs. Lohano, Buridi and Kazmi, the team is working hard to establish a working paper for the eligibility and this will be based on merit cum need basis. SOCH HELPS TO INAUGURATE HIGH DEPENDENCY UNIT AT CHK Serve Our Civil Hospital, Dow Student based organization help with funding to establish high dependency unit in surgical unit 1 at Civil Hospital, Karachi. National Health Forum also participated to raise funds for the unit. Prof. Dr. Saeed Qureshi and Prof. Dr. Qamaruddin Baloch inaugurated the unit. A high dependency unit is an area in a hospital, usually located closely to the intensive care unit, where patients can be cared for more extensively than on a normal ward, but not to the point of intensive care, it is appropriate for patients who have had major surgery and for those with single-organ failure. Dr. Shoukat Malik, President PMA Karachi (left) and Dr. Naseem Shekhani, President NHF (right) at PAK-CHINA MEDCONG PAK-CHINA MED CONG was organized by Pakistan Medical Association, Karachi under the leadership of Dr. Shoukat Malik in Karachi. This was 4-day conference from January 6th through 9th More than 50 delegates from China participated and papers were presented. Mr. Mamnoon Hussain, President of Pakistan also spoke on this occasion at plenary session. Supporters of NHF Dr. Nighat Shah, Dr. Shabbir Nawaz, Dr. Tipu Sultan, Dr. Hamid Manzoor, Dr. Khalid Parachi, Dr. Qazi Wasiq, Dr. Idris Adhi, Dr. Mirza Ali Azhar, Dr. Shershah to name the few presented their talks on their respected fields, Dr. Naseem Shekhani, President of NHF, spoke on opportunities in USA as foreign graduate. Conference was successful as over 1000 physicians attended the conference. On pre-conference held at PMA House Karachi on the topic of Fistula in Obstetrics, Dr. Shekhani gave an over view to midwives present about what contribution PMA and NHF has done to further the cause and need of midwifery programs. NHF AND DOGANA START A RESEARCH ELECTIVES FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS. National Health Forum (NHF) in collaboration with Dow Alumni Association of North America (DOGANA) will be starting a 4 hours week of 10-week program which will be conducted by Advance Educational Institute and Research Center. First class will have 25 students and our goal is to teach students, how to conduct a research, to learn dissect the research papers and above all each student will design their own study and that will be presented. US based Dow graduates who are also involve in research here in USA with the help of DOGANA will have an abstract writing competition. Main goal is to promote research amongst Medical Students.

2 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Tanveer Imam EDITOR Amin Gadit Masood Moeen PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Iffat Shah-Ibrahim Raheel R. Khan Mujeeb-ur Rehman Muslim Jami Junaid Syed Asif Moinuddin Mansoor Abidi Rizwan Jabir Wamique Yusuf Naseem Shekhani ARTICLE SUBMISSION We encourage every reader to send articles throughout the year on healthcare issues in Pakistan and the US. Articles can be ed as text or in MS Word format to The Editor reserves the right to edit content of all articles that are submitted. FOR ADVERTISEMENTS For advertisement rates, submission and schedule please DISCLAIMER Health Beat, the NHF newsletter, is a bi-monthly newsletter and provides health information to its readers. The views expressed are those of authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of either the editor or the editorial board. NATIONAL HEALTH FORUM 2325 Dougherty Ferry Rd, #203 St. Louis, MO MARCH 2016 ISSUE EDITORIAL By: Tanveer M. Imam, M.D. PRIVATIZATION OF NATIONAL ASSETS T he mantra that privatization is a recipe for the success of an organization is as misleading as the notion that government run outfits are destined for disaster and ruin. The fact is the success or failure of an organization depends upon the vision and dedication of the management and the time and money invested in the organization. The philosophy and objectives of public and private run outfits, however, differ from each other. While the budget of an organization has to be balanced and cannot be run endlessly in deficit, the bottom line differs between the two sectors. Government run entities are designed to provide affordable services to the citizens, while ever-rising profitability is the driving engine behind private organizations. The balance between public and private sectors can be successfully maintained in a democratic society as long as a public sympathetic government is eager to guard public interest. But unfortunately, even in advanced bourgeois democratic societies with strong tradition of universal adult franchise, we have seen erosions of public trust and collusion of private sector money in contaminating key decision-making processes. At such junctures the peaceful democratic set up is disturbed and threatened. A conscious and literate public that so far has been the proverbial cog in the wheel is ready to seek other avenues to make them heard. Deeply agitated by the perfidy of public representatives, they are forced to take industrial action. Hostilities between public representatives and employees within public sector organizations are seen throughout the world. Governments in highly industrialized nations as well as in semi feudal societies are at loggerheads with their citizens. While the principal conflict is similar, the manner of resolution of dispute corresponds to the sociopolitical development of respective societies. The two stark examples are the ongoing disputes in National Health Services (NHS) in the United Kingdom and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in Pakistan. The National Health Services of England was formed in 1948 and is the largest publicly funded healthcare system in the world. It is run by the Department of Health headed by the Secretary of Health. Under this single payer plan every citizen of United Kingdom is treated free of charge. The NHS also funds doctors training and salaries. The current dispute in NHS has been regarding junior doctors salaries and work time. The government wants to enforce a new contract that would extend junior doctors plain time -hours at which doctors are paid at basic rate by 2 hours on weekdays and include 10 hours of Saturdays in that pay schedule. This would essentially mean that the doctors work more and take 30% pay cut. After a failed negotiation of 2 years, the doctors have called for a strike. The British Medical Association has led the struggle by creating a disciplined cadre of strikers who are covering essential services and emergencies. The British public has been largely sympathetic towards the doctors point of view and has been patient with the delay of outpatient care and elective surgeries. The public support is present because the NHS has provided an excellent service to British citizens and has been a very successful venture throughout its existence. The employees of Pakistan International Airlines have been protesting against the privatization of the national flag carrier airline. PIA has had an excellent service record in its initial years. It was one of the best airlines of the world and was a model for many regional airlines. Through the last couple of decades the airline has come under enormous financial debt due to large scale bungling and cronyism. The government now wants to sell the national asset to private enterprise through an opaque process. There is no call for accountability and no responsibility bestowed on top management. It is not even clear who will end up paying the 3 billion debt accrued over the years. The only mantra dispensed through the media is that privatization would be essential for the rescue and progress of the airlines. The employees of the public corporation called for a strike and held a peaceful demonstration. Instead of offering a sympathetic hearing, a brutal and violent crackdown was done on the demonstrators. Two employees, Inayet Raza and Saleem Akbar were shot and killed. No arrest has been made up to this date. The lessons learned through these experiences tell us that government, if they have the will, can surely run a very successful organization. And privatization cannot ensure success of an organization. After all Enron and Lehmann Brothers were private organizations that went bankrupt! Secondly the false perception put forward in the media by friends that doctors have no right to strike is pure philistinism. They have as much right as any worker to protest for their just rights. Viable physician organizations like BMA that has deep roots in the society lead the struggle from the front and ensure proper coverage of emergencies and patient right protection. In the end we vehemently protest the killing of innocent PIA employees and hope proper judicial investigation is done on the matter and culprits are brought to justice.

3 SCAVENGER By: Shahid Husain, M.D. K ARACHI: Fahimuzaman Khan, ex-administrator, Karachi Metropolitan Corporations told Health Beat that according to UNESCO as a thumb rule third world afro-asian countries generate half-kg to three quarters of a kg per person solid waste per day. According to 1998 census, Karachi s urban population was 9.3 million while some six hundred thousand people lived in rural areas. Currently Karachi s based on various factors, surveys and number of registered votes in the city is estimated around 20 million. But this population cannot be considered 100% urban in nature, at least 50 % are people who are migrant and still live more or less in rural social relations and ties. Therefore it may be rather prudent to consider average waste generation at merely half-a-kg per person per day. This should translate in to 10,000 metric tons of solid waste generated in Karachi every day. Karachi is a city of 3600 square kilometers, with 1100 square miles of urban settlements. Over the years Karachi has experienced systemic failure of governance. The city has a limited capacity of lifting garbage today. A mixed bag of some 400 garbage lifting vehicles, with capacities ranging from 3-tons to 10-tons per vehicle, ply the roads. Even this number depends upon availability of fuel, drivers and condition of maintenance of vehicles with ages between years. Karachi Solid Waste Management is dependent upon theoretical disposal of garbage at waste dumping sites of Gond Pass and Surjani in district West. The Mehran Town waste dumping site in Korangi is long gone and converted into plots of various sizes. The average distance of the two remaining garbage dumping sites from residential areas is about 35 kilometers and the three industrial sites some 25 kilometers. The per-trip garbage lifting capacity of the ageing fleet of men and garbagevehicles is estimated at some 1800 tons. But limited capacity of buying fuel and demand of over-time does not allow most vehicles even to do one trip per day. It is estimated that merely 10% of garbage produced in Karachi ever see the far-away garbage Land-fill sites. The situation of hospital waste disposal is even worse in the city. There are five-major hospitals in the city. These include Jinnah Hospital, Civil Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Aga Khan Hospital, SIUT and Lyari General jn addition to Indus, Tabba, National Medical Centre. There are approximately 450 private hospital and laboratories generating highly contagious hospital waste in Karachi but literally no medical waste incineration municipal facility even though some of the glorified medical facilities have their in-house small disposal incinerators. But solid waste disposal could be a very profitable exercise. Realizing this potential the highly corrupt Sindh establishment has started with creating a Solid Waste Management Authority under its bureaucratic control. What is perhaps required is a system of primary and secondary waste collection, garbage transfer stations and final disposal sites along with waste sorting, segregation, recycling facilities. Together this could be a revenue generation opportunity for the city rather then a curse for citizen s health. Senior psychiatrist and eminent artist at Ziauddin Hospital, Nazimabad, Karachi Dr. Syed Ali Wasif told HealthBeat: When you push aside a segment of society at a very vulnerable age to extremes of conditions and poverty it is inevitable that at a right time in their lives they will hit back the society to take a revenge. Scavengers are vulnerable to become suicide bombers and help out banned organizations on meager benefits to sustain the lives of their loved ones and their siblings. They are seen collecting domestic and solid waste as early as 3am and this garbage is full of contamination with variety of pathogins. The garbage these innocent children are collecting include hospital waste from hospitals and clinics and are vulnerable to infections. You must have seen them coughing around while collecting garbage that indicates that they are suffering from respiratory tract infections. He further said: Although its the responsibility of the state to collect and dump waste in a proper manner but these Afghan children suffer from skin diseases and are often abused. Their only refuge in the evening is either to fight with each other or snuff Summer Bond to which they are addicted. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shahid Husain is a Journalist with daily THE NEWS and his expertise is writing on medical issues.

4 NHF REPORT 2015 By: Naseem Shekhani, M.D. National Health Forum, Inc (NHF) is a non for profit organization helping the indigent population and promoting research and education in the medical field. NHF has been in forefront on many issues in Midwifery Class of 2017 ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: Completion of construction of three floor Nursing and Midwifery Hostel in mid-year 2015, which will house about 120 students from all over Pakistan. Thirty students have already moved in late 2015 in this state of art hostel. Completion of Suleman Palliative Care Center construction with the help of Shehnaz and Amin Foundation. This will be first Palliative Care Center of its kind for indigent population of Pakistan. The functioning will most probably start mid-year Through NHF supporters in U.S.A. Midwifery Program will be funding 25 students for next two years. First Urdu Nursing reference text book is in process of getting edited and almost to its completion. This text book will be expected to get printed in summer or fall of Successful fundraising events were carried out for Koohi Goth Hospital with help of NHF Volunteers in Chicago, Dallas and Houston. Over 150,000 dollars were raised. Houston performed the best under the leadership of Drs. Shehnaz and Amin Karim, Dr. Shahid Hasnain and Dr. Shagufta Naqvi. NHF with collaboration with Serve Our Civil Hospital (SOCH) a NGO operated by Dow Medical College Students under the leadership of Haya Qaisar established a step down unit in one of the surgical unit at Civil Hospital Karachi. Main funding was sponsored by NHF, similarly a unit was established recently in February of 2016 at Surgical Unit 1 at CHK at Prof. Qamar Baloch s ward, thanks to Dr. Saeed Qureshi, Medical Superintendent at CHK. Besides these above solid accomplishments, NHF had a Press Conference at Karachi Press Club on ailing standards of medical education in Pakistan and made aware about the concern and changes which are being made by General Medical Council of Britain, USA and combined western countries. NHF has been in forefront in supporting the bill in congress sponsored by Senator Casey to increase 15,000 slots of residency in USA. NHF in collaboration with APPNA, DOGANA and SOCH worked on heat wave related problems in Karachi last summer and work along Jibran Nasir s organization. Also increase public awareness on industrial pollution and child labor issues in Pakistan. Recent graduate Class of 25 Midwifery who started after passing Matric. All graduates were employed even before finishing Midwifery program and getting handsome salaries. NHF helped in loan program with Dow Graduates of North America, where seven to eight young graduates got matched for residency program; which would have not been possible without the help of loan program. Thanks to team Drs. Mamoona Shaikh, Salman Ahmad, Fasial Jafri and Azim Qureshi. NHF sponsored URDU-ENGLISH Medical Dictionary and Medical Terminology are still best sellers after being in Market for two years and helping many Nursing and midwifery students. As far as patient care is concern operations per week and almost 100 patients are seen daily at OPD at Koohi Goth Hospital. Karachi. Pakistan. Midwifery and Nursing on site Hostel Rehab Unit for patients

5 FINANCIALS A rough draft is given with this report over all over 300,00 were raised and similar amount were given to program. Please look at the table given. All overheads are taken from General funds except fund raising event. Most of the balance left is mark for helping Young Physicians of rural areas, who want pursue education abroad. NHF BALANCE SHEET YEAR 2015 NATIONAL HEALTH FORUM 2015 Profit and Loss Opening Balance Paypal Expenses Contributions 331, EXPENSES: 306, Printing 8, Accounting 1, Bank Fees Fundraising Expenses 39, Directly Given to Projects SOCH 5, Koohi Goth Hospital 230, Koohi Goth Hospital 13, SOCH Step Down Unit Closing Balance 25, , NHF thanks all donors who contributed small and large sums and thank all volunteers who made the work possible which were all value. Special thanks to Shehnaz and Amin Karim, Zafar Syed, ASC Systems, Dr. Faiz Fayyaz, Dr. Asif Cochinwala, Dr. Mansoor Abidi, Dr. Raheel Rasheed Khan, Dr. Zafar Yab Ibrahim, Dr. Aisha Zafar, Dr. Wajiha Karatela, Dr. Tanveer Imam, Dr. Zaffar Iqbal, Dr. Shagufta Naqvi, Dr. Shahid Hasnain, Dr. Omar Nasib, Dr. Tariq Butt, Aftab Siddiqui, Universal Surgical in Houston, Adil Imam, Norton Health from Boston, Dr. Nasar Qureshi, Attiya Khan, Shahid Hashmi, Dr. Zaffar Iqbal, Dow Graduates Association of North America, Association of Physicians of Pakistani-Descent of North America, South Texas Oral and Maxillofascial Surgeries, Pakistan Medical Association, Karachi, Javeed Shirazi, Ahsan Rashid, Dr. Shershah and Hameed Peracha. WE APPEAL YOU TO HELP We live in world where we see suffering and atrocities and question is how we can help. NHF performs all the work through the contributions given by friends like yourself. NHF goal is 2016 is not only to promote health care and prevention but to promote opportunities for young doctors, medical students, para-medical staff and midwives. NHF want to promote understanding amongst Medical Students and young doctors to understand the research practices and search for research opportunities. YOUR DOLLARS CAN HELP Achieve better medical care for indigent. Young Physicians to go abroad and further their education and training. * To promote better understanding about research amongst physicians and medical students. * To promote spirit of volunteerism amongst young and old equally. ACT NOW & HELP NHF CONTRIBUTE & ACHIEVE GOALS YOU VALUE Thanks, Naseem A. Shekhani, M.D. President NHF Official reconciliation to be done by Fareed Katariwala, CPA. Local Koohi Goth girls graduated and now working at Koohi Goth Mid-wifery program. Drs. Sohail Ansari, Hasan Ali Kassimali & Zaffar Iqbal visiting Suleman Palliative Care Center. Local girls working locally in Koohi Goth Village

6 WHEN YOUR HEALTH IS A BUSINESS, By: Donna Smith THE SYSTEM IS SICK A new year begins. The competition for my health care spending dollars shifts. I pivot from just the usual payment plans, monthly out-of-pocket bill payments, and payment of my premiums to health solutions that do not require doctor visits. For many Americans insured through private insurance plans, deductibles are now reset to zero. It is the time of year that many in the U.S. worry most about as an illness or injury could be a really bad way to usher in the new year and make the remainder of the year stressful and difficult. In the United States, our health care access is often subject to payment of thousands of dollars in deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs that make millions of us do everything we can to avoid needing care. This does not mean we don t need care. It just means we avoid it and the bills that come along with being human enough to get sick or hurt. That has not changed much under the ACA/Obamacare. We suck up over the counter medications for everything from the common cold to allergies to digestive troubles to fevers to rashes and lots of other health concerns. We diagnose our own ailments as much as possible using the Internet and trying to guess our way out of the need for a doctor s visit. Some argue that a health system that relies on market competition makes health care better and drives down costs as consumers (patients) shop for the most affordable care options. This just doesn t work. Many of the most intelligent people in our nation know that a public, universal health care system would be far superior in almost every way -- economically and in terms of health outcomes. And poll results just this week reinforce that the American voting public still favors a single-payer system. Publications all over the world other parts of the world, that is feature the writings of educated Americans celebrating the virtues of a system that is very unlike the one we have in the U.S. One recent piece was published in the U.K.. It was written by Amartya Sen, a Nobel prizewinning professor of economics and philosophy. By all accounts, it seems Professor Sen is a pretty decent thinker. He posits that universal health care is an affordable dream. He doesn t seem like he s anti-american or anti-profits. In one excerpt from the article in which he argues that universal care is an affordable dream, Sen writes, In the absence of a reasonably well-organized system of public health care for all, many people are afflicted by overpriced and inefficient private health care. As has been analyzed by many economists, most notably Kenneth Arrow, there cannot be a well-informed competitive market equilibrium in the field of medical attention, because of what economists call asymmetric information. Patients do not typically know what treatment they need for their ailments, or what medicine would work, or even what exactly the doctor is giving to them as a remedy. Unlike in the market for many commodities, such as shirts or umbrellas, the buyer of medical treatment knows far less than what the seller the doctor does, and this vitiates the efficiency of market competition. Let s state that again. The buyer (you and me) knows far less than the seller (physicians and other providers) about the care or treatment that may or may not be needed and this intensely unbalanced knowledge/experience level destroys what many people claim would be the efficiency of free market competition. Our health care system cannot rely on providers to be fully honest about what they know. The health industry s pressure to score profits means that we cannot trust everything we are advised to do in terms of treatments. The doctor-patient relationship most of us would prefer is tainted by too many hands in the profit pot. From insurance brokers and even the ACA exchanges to the insurance companies to Big Pharma to corporate providers, financial services groups and collection agencies and beyond, scores of profit-driven forces stand to gain or lose based on what our doctors advise us -- or even convince us -- to do to get and stay healthy. Oh, wait, staying healthy isn t a way to make the biggest profits, is it? And woe be to the patient (consumer) who questions his or her treatment options when something seems off. Many of us have been dismissed by providers who act insulted by even the suggestion that money or profit is playing a part in the delivery of our care. We are to be obedient servants of the medical-financial-industrial complex. The playing field isn t free, and it will not get any more free until health care is handled as a universal, public good in which every one of us is invested in the best outcomes and not just the shareholders who only desire their own enrichment. THIS ARTICLE IS TAKEN FROM COMMONDREAMS.ORG ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Donna Smith is the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America. PDA s mission is to strengthen the voice of progressive ideas inside and outside the Democratic Party by using inside/outside and grass roots fusion models of working both in the Democratic Party as well as working with other progressive organizations both inside and outside the Party.

7 SERVE OUR CIVIL HOSPITAL Article by: Tooba Irfan DOW MEDICAL COLLEGE STUDENT BASED ORGANIZATION SOCH Volunteers work on Patient Education T hough being one of the most important public hospitals of a metropolis, Karachi; and a host to masses from all over Sindh and parts of Baluchistan, Civil Hospital, Karachi, is in a disturbing state, with no proper infrastructure and below par hygiene conditions. Be a witness to the daily hustle bustle of patients, surrounded by chalked walls, tinted with dried tobacco stains; stinking corridors littered with filth and garbage and you will realize that an essential pillar that strengthens the health care system has gone missing. In the wake of such appalling condition of their alma mater, a small group of Dowites stepped up with a zealous commitment to contribute to the betterment of their very own Civil Hospital, Karachi. Their baby steps in the form of awareness campaigns, cleaning projects and infection control missions contributed towards the creation of a sound platform; Serve Our Civil Hospital (S.O.C.H). S.O.C.H, the brain child of the students of Dow Medical College, Karachi, is a non-political; student-run organization, which was established in the year We are currently trying to boost the efficiency of the existing maintenance staff at Civil Hospital, Karachi by providing the hospital with man power, as well as adequate cleaning equipment and chemicals. S.O.C.H. aims to control infection by raising awareness among the patients, their attendants, non-medical staff, paramedics and medical staff through public service messages and frequent bed to bed awareness campaigns. Our future plans include a charity-based school equipped with state of the art facilities, for the children of paramedics and non-medical staff of Civil Hospital, Karachi. Teaching Basic handwashing skills to kids at CHK (3rd Year) Hafsa Mohiuddin (5th Year) Currently, our pilot project consists of two campaigns; Safayi Nisf Eman (Hygiene is Half Faith) and Pegham-e-Sehat (Message of Health), under the banner of Soch Hai Sehat Ki (Thought of Health). While Safayi Nisf Eman focused on re-painting and through cleaning of Gynecology Unit 1 of CHK by our enthusiastic volunteers; Pegham-e-Sehat; collectively represents several multidimensional mass awareness campaigns. These include in-hospital bed to bed campaigns, mass texting and street awareness targeted at demonstrating to the patients, their attendants and the general public, the proper steps off hand-washing and basic general hygiene. Our awareness campaigns are also aligned with internationally celebrated days like World Health Day, Global Handwashing Day, World Immunization Week, T.B Day etc. As a part of C.U.R.E (Civil Uplifting and Renovation Program), we successfully renovated the OPD area and Rehabilitation Centre at CHK. Along with this, S.O.C.H proudly owns the achievement of building HDU in Surgical Unit 5, which was inaugurated in January 2015 and Peads 2 NICU in March 2015.An extension of C.U.R.E, Deep Clean Project, involves hiring 2 diligent janitors and equipping them with a mechanical scrubber and a potent chemical agents for cleaning. We manage to clean scrupulously Pediatric units 1, 2 and 3, and Surgical 3, 4 and 5, at least once a week. Dengue Prevention and Control Program was launched during the last dengue epidemic in September, 2011 to provide awareness regarding self-protection and prevention against dengue to the masses. Our School Volunteering Program (SVP) is a project designed to inculcate the spirit of volunteerism in school going children. Every year, S.O.C.H organizes two SVPs; one in summer and one in winter vacations, allowing our keen students from different schools over the city to spend time with patients, spread awareness of infection control and hygiene among them. Students are also taught medical basics like Vitals, Infection Control, Hand Hygiene and First Aid. Another effective project is our School Outreach Program. This is a multifaceted project where our volunteers organize fun-filled learning activities in schools, in order to teach school-going children the importance of good hygiene. (Continued on the Next Page) SOCH Volunteers with Pediatric ward with US Consulate General Karachi

8 NATIONAL HEALTH FORUM 2325 Dougherty Ferry Rd, #203 St. Louis, MO NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID ST. LOUIS, MO PERMIT #PI 1694 More than 4% drug abusers in Pakistan (CONT D FROM PAGE 7 - SOCH) S.O.C.H stands not just as an organization but as an ideology. It symbolizes that utmost, unconditional care that reaches out beyond the barriers of race, caste, religion and the rationales of profit and loss. It is a beacon of hope and guidance for all the helpless, miserable souls out there waiting to be cured. It works towards a dream that one day, our people will receive the good health care environment which they deserve. There is still a long way to go, many obstacles to be conquered, many milestones to be achieved. We are incredibly thankful to our supporters and volunteers for their generous contribution to make SOCH, a huge organization recognized by many. Year after year, fresh Dowites become a part of the SOCH family. They strengthen its ideology, inherit the zealous spirit of their seniors, work tirelessly towards its motive and help the organization spread its wings to improve the health care system further. SOCH welcomes everyone to be a part of its ideology. Help its dream transform into a reality by being a committed volunteer, donor or sponsor. Because Together We Can. Step Down Unit Constructed by SOCH ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hafsa Mohiuddin (Final year) and Tooba Irfan (Third year) medical student at Dow Medical College Karachi. Pakistan. SOCH TB Education Campaign 2015 SOCH volunteers with Dr. Shekhani, January 2016 SOCH Volunteers cleaning the ward