Improve Health for Mothers & Children in Pakistan

Dear Friends and Supporters of Improving Health for Mothers & Children in Pakistan;

Your continued support of our project has helped in the treatment of over 6000 patients this year,  and we thank you greatly for this support.

Project Report : This has been a harsh winter in much of Pakistan and most of the patients came to seek care for colds and respiratory infections.  The number of children admitted at the children’s ward in Shikarpur was much less this January and February as compared to the previous year when the area was affected by an outbreak of measles.             In Gharo and Baldia Town, the physicians have been treating patients that come in for routine primary  care as well as those who come for care for their chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Recently, a poor, young woman came to the Gharo facility after having been to other physicians and no relief of her symptoms. Our physician spent time listening to her complaints and after examination  and tests  diagnosed her as suffering from depression related to extreme stress.  She is better with the medications prescribed and has been referred to specialists for further evaluation.                          
Four Board members and a number of SHINE’s supporters visited the Gharo facility during the past 3 months.  All reported satisfaction with the services being provided and provided suggestions on further improvement of services which  will be implemented as we move forward.

Jinnah Sindh Medical University - Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) Institute of Public Health: This past December SHINE Humanity was invited to speak at the Jinnah Sindh Medical University - APPNA Institute of Public Health’s  Inaugural Symposium “Building the Link between Health Care Providers and Communities” in Karachi. Dr. Salman Naqvi, Chairman of SHINE presented “ Is it time for Public Health Programs in Pakistan? SHINE Humanity- Aasra General Hospital, An NGO’s  initiative in Gharo, Sindh. He highlighted the many steps being taken by SHINE with respect to services being provided and measures for disease prevention.
Training Sessions: In late December 2013, SHINE’s advisor Dr. Naghmana Shafi, an esteemed pediatrician, traveled to Karachi, Pakistan to conduct a number of training sessions aimed at preventing unnecessary deaths among newborn babies.  The Helping Babies Breathe Workshops or HBB is a neonatal resuscitation program  for saving a newborn's life during the first minute of  its birth  called the  “golden minute”. This program is easy to teach and low cost and works especially well in underdeveloped countries as Pakistan, for training and empowering midwives, traditional birth attendants and lady health visitors as well as doctors and nurses. In countries like Pakistan where more than fifty percent of the deliveries are conducted  at home or in facilities with the bare minimum of pediatric resources this program can save millions of lives. Dr. Naghmana trained 217 doctors, medical students, nurses and paramedics. 94 of these trainees will go on and continue to train others.

We thank you again for being a part of our work and ask you to consider becoming a monthly donor to help us expand the outreach of our services.

Sincerely;                                                                                                                                                                                The SHINE Humanity Team.

Links:

• Search for SHINE Humanity on google.com