By Huzaifa Kermani | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
When Illness Becomes a Financial Crisis
A medical emergency should never force a family to choose between treatment and survival.
Yet for millions of families across Pakistan, that is still the reality.
Pakistan has made meaningful progress towards universal health coverage. According to the World Health Organization, the country's Universal Health Coverage Service Coverage Index increased from 40 in 2015 to 56 in 2023. However, the financial burden of illness remains severe.
In 2024 alone, more than 14.8 million people in Pakistan experienced catastrophic health expenditure, while an estimated 11.1 million people were pushed below the US$2.15-a-day poverty line because of out-of-pocket medical costs.
Behind these numbers are parents postponing treatment, families borrowing money for medicines, and patients arriving at hospitals only after their conditions have become critical.
This is where your Zakat becomes more than a donation.
It becomes access to care.
Nearly Five Decades of Care
Since 1977, Fatima Memorial Hospital (FMH) has worked to make quality healthcare accessible to patients regardless of their ability to pay.
The GlobalGiving Zakat Appeal records that more than 10.04 million deserving patients have received treatment free of cost or at highly subsidized rates through FMH's charitable support system.
In our previous GlobalGiving update, we reported:
These figures represent much more than financial assistance.
They represent surgeries performed, medicines provided, children treated, mothers cared for and families given another chance.
A System Built to Protect Patients
FMH's commitment to welfare care is embedded within its operating model.
Published FMH financial data for FY 2023–24 records approximately PKR 912.8 million in free and subsidized treatment and medicines provided to patients during that year.
The same financial disclosures describe a cross-subsidy model in which clinical and training income supports hospital operations and benevolence care, alongside Zakat and donations.
This matters because sustainable charity in healthcare cannot depend on compassion alone.
It requires institutions, doctors, nurses, equipment, medicines, diagnostics and systems capable of turning generosity into treatment.
That infrastructure already exists at Fatima Memorial Hospital.
Your support helps us open its doors to those who otherwise could not afford to enter them.
What Your Support Can Make Possible
Every contribution moves from a number on a screen to something tangible inside a hospital.
The current GlobalGiving appeal identifies examples of equipment that donor support can help fund:
Support can also contribute towards equipment and care across Nephrology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics and general patient services.
A donor may see a machine.
A physician sees the ability to diagnose.
A nurse sees the ability to intervene.
A family sees hope.
Our GlobalGiving Journey
Our goal on GlobalGiving remains:
$100,000
As of August 12, 2026:
$6,360 has been raised
$93,640 remains to reach our goal
In our February 4, 2026 update, the remaining campaign requirement stood at $93,831. Since that report, the gap has continued to narrow.
Every contribution counts.
But the distance still ahead of us demonstrates why continued donor support is so important.
The Need Does Not Follow a Calendar
Patients do not become ill only during a particular month.
Kidney disease does not wait.
A complicated pregnancy does not wait.
A sick child does not wait.
And a family that cannot afford treatment cannot simply postpone an emergency until its finances improve.
For that reason, Fatima Memorial Hospital's responsibility to provide compassionate and subsidized care continues every day of the year.
Your Zakat helps us sustain that promise.
More Than Paying a Medical Bill
When Zakat helps fund treatment for a deserving patient, its effect can extend far beyond the hospital bed.
A parent returning home to their children.
A child returning to school.
A breadwinner returning to work.
A family avoiding devastating medical debt.
A patient receiving treatment with dignity rather than being defined by their ability to pay.
That is the long-term impact of your contribution.
Healthcare protects life—but accessible healthcare can protect an entire family's future.
Help Us Close the Gap
We still have $93,640 to raise towards our $100,000 GlobalGiving goal.
There is still significant ground to cover.
But almost five decades of service have taught us something important:
Large change is built through individual acts of compassion.
One donor funds part of a treatment.
Another helps provide equipment.
Another enables medicines or diagnostics.
Together, those individual acts create a healthcare safety net for people who have nowhere else to turn.
Your Zakat can give someone the chance to heal.
Please support Fatima Memorial Hospital through GlobalGiving and help us continue providing accessible, ethical and lifesaving healthcare to Pakistan's most deserving patients.
Because when healthcare becomes unaffordable, your generosity can become the difference between going without care and receiving a second chance at life.
With Gratitude
To every person who has donated, shared our appeal or supported Fatima Memorial Hospital:
Thank you.
Your trust allows us to continue a mission that began in 1977 and remains just as relevant today—to provide quality healthcare with compassion, dignity and without discrimination based on a patient's ability to pay.
Together, we can keep the doors of care open.
References
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
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