Improve Health for Mothers & Children in Pakistan

Dear Supporters of Mothers and Children in Pakistan;

As the year comes to a close, we at SHINE Humanity would like to wish you and your loved ones  a very Happy Holiday season and a  New Year  filled with peace, love, joy and health!

Your contributions have been vital in helping SHINE treat almost 30,000 patients from January to November of this year with a wide array of services.

2013 has been an eventful year for SHINE, with our focus transitioning  to provide primary and preventive  health care for  underprivileged communities in Sindh, Pakistan.
We initiated  these services along with antenatal and postnatal care at the SHINE Humanity - Aasra General Hospital outpatient clinic in Gharo. The colorful clothing and smiles belie the abject poverty many of the people of this area  suffer. This is reflected in the rapid increase in  number of patients being treated at this charitable  facility to  7607 by the end of November.  88 percent of these patients have been women and children. Another 267 beneficiaries  were treated at a medical camp in the nearby village of Babra in July. The five most commonest ailments treated so far are respiratory infection, diarrhea, dyspepsia, skin infections and anemias. Many of these conditions can be prevented, and we are educating the patients on an individual level for now. We have also started mHealth services by making use of mobile phones to connect our staff with a skin specialist in Karachi for  her assistance in the management of patients with skin problems.
Apart from  providing urgent care for minor cuts and wounds, we have established  referral lines with specialty centers  in the city for our patients. Other services such as D&E and blood transfusions have also been provided for the patients who have needed these.

Over 8000 patients have been treated at Sina’s Health Education & Welfare Trust’s Primary Healthcare clinic in Baldia Town since  we started the co-support  of this clinic in July. This is a poor to low income neighborhood of Karachi. With a dismal economic situation, it is difficult for the common person to make ends meet and the cost of healthcare has become prohibitively expensive for many of the residents of this megacity. Prevention of communicable and noncommunicable diseases is a major hallmark of the services provided at this facility.

We are continuing the support of the children’s wards at the R.B.U.T. Civil Hospital in Shikarpur where 13800 children have been treated this year. With the kind support of one of our donors we have had  two new airconditioners installed in the wards to help overcome the oppressive heat. This year we have also been more active in educating the parents of the children to ensure all children receive their vaccinations and are brought to the hospital before they get very sick. Sadly most of the deaths at these facilities occur because the children are brought in too late for any chance of survival.                                                                                       SHINE’s advisor, Dr. Naghmana S. Farrukh, a pediatrician,  is  set to  conduct a series of training sessions on neonatal resuscitation to prevent needless deaths among newborns, during her trip to Karachi in December.

Among our other achievements lately is our agreement to collaborate with The Association of Mothers and Newborns [AMAN], a Karachi based nonprofit organization to work towards the achievement of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals of  improving  maternal and newborn health and  reducing  maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality in underprivileged areas of Sindh.

We could not have achieved these milestones  without all the support we get from you.We would like to thank you again for your faith in us, and sincerely hope that you will continue to support us in the coming year as well. Please give as generously as you can to help the Mothers & Children in Sindh, Pakistan.

Links:

• Search for SHINE Humanity on Google

Dear Supporters of Mothers and Children in Pakistan;

It has been a busy and exciting last few months for us. Thanks to the support of all our generous donors, our new project, the SHINE Humanity- Aasra General Hospital in Gharo, started operating on the 17th of  April and we have been treating a steadily increasing stream of patients. 3324 patients have been treated at this facility tiil  the end of August.  As in the past, most of our patients [ 88 percent]  have been women and children. We are providing outpatient primary care services with an emphasis on disease prevention. All children are questioned about routine childhood  immunizations and referred to the Expanded Program for Immunization  nearby,  in cases where  they haven’t been vaccinated. Would-be mothers are given complete antenatal checkups and followed up on vaccinations, nutrition and supplement requirements to ensure a safe pregnancy and healthy outcome. We have partnered with the nonprofit, Husaini Hematology and Oncology Trust, to provide quality assured diagnostic laboratory and blood transfusion services.

Another 267 beneficiaries were treated at an outreach  medical camp in Babra on the 8th of July. There are no healthcare facilities in this village, so, the villagers were very happy to receive this service at their doorstep. More camps are  planned for  the future.

Chewing tobacco is a huge problem in this area, as it is most other areas of Pakistan, leading to one of the highest incidences of oral cancer in this region. Our staff  members question the patients on this practice and educate them on the harm caused by it and the need to quit.

This summer, Gharo and its surrounding areas were also affected by heavy rains and ensuing problems. There were no reported deaths or major disease outbreaks in the area. However,  in mid-August, we arranged for the transport of  patients from the  catchment village of Sultanabad, as soon as we heard  that a lack of transport was hindering their ability to seek help for those suffering from diarrhea and similar problems. These villagers were long time users of Aasra’s services and had now moved to higher ground, because of the flooding around their huts.  54 patients including men, women and children were treated at  the SHINE Humanity- Aasra General Hospital’s outpatient  clinic  and  transported back to their settlement.

In July, we undertook the  co-support  of Sina Health & Education  Welfare Trust’s charitable  primary and preventive health care clinic in Baldia Town, Karachi. With the ever rising level of living expenses, this clinic serves to alleviate some of the healthcare burden of the low income beneficiaries who visit this clinic.  This clinic also provides psycho-social counseling, and laboratory, ultrasound  and Xray  services. 3280 patients were treated at his facility in July and August, and another 712 were provided diagnostic and other services such as nebulization. 312 patients received preventive care for diabetes and hypertension during these two months.

SHINE is continuing the support of the Pediatrics wards at the R.B.U.T Civil Hospital in Shikarpur where 9835 children have been treated from January to August 2013. We are continuing to work alongside WHO and UNICEF for providing the nutritional and medical  care for children admitted with severe malnutrition. This summer we had two new air conditioners installed in the wards to overcome the intense heat in this area. These air conditioners were  donated very generously by a couple of our California supporters.

Thank you for enabling us achieve all of the above with your love and kind support. We are truly grateful to you and Global Giving for helping us improve the health of our beneficiaries in Pakistan, and we ask you to please consider becoming a monthly supporter for the  thousands of beneficiaries who need medical care which  is usually prohibitively expensive for them  because of their limited resources and competing daily expenses.

Links:

• Search for SHINE Humanity on Google