Jan Mohammad was sunk in deep thoughts. Doctors had just diagnosed his sister with spinal TB. He was in class six when his sister’s health had started deteriorating. After a year of experimenting with local herbal medicines at their small village without results, they had now come to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), a tertiary care facility in the metropolis, where he heard the diagnosis and details of the disease with shock. To support the meager income of his aging father, he had not gone to school for the past six months to help their large family bear the cost of his sister’s herbal treatment.
They had come to Karachi after exhausting all their savings, in hope of some relief, but needed another Rs. 10,000 now. This meant they would need to borrow more money from the landlord on high interest rate, and his dream of going back to school would never be realized. With some reluctance, Jan Mohammad went to the duty doctor’s room and shared his thoughts with him. Mesmerized by the child’s dream of continuing his education, the doctor told him not to worry and that there was a way to save his sister without spending more.
The kind doctor directed Jan Mohammad to PWA Drug Bank, a non-profit organization, providing free of cost drugs to poor patients of Civil Hospital Karachi, and also told him that his sister will be registered with the PWA TB Follow Up Clinic after she’s discharged from the hospital, where complete 6-9 months treatment will be provided free of cost including diagnostic tests and medicines. Jan Mohammad could not believe his luck. Not only was his sister provided free of cost medicines while in hospital, she was registered with the clinic and is now receiving complete treatment for the past five months. Jan Mohammad is back in school now!
This is just one of thousands of stories of suffering families, who come to CHK in search of hope. With 80 percent of the population below poverty line in this country of 180 million, and inability of government to cope up with the issue, the role of non-profit voluntary organizations comes into play. Patients’ Welfare Association (PWA) is a non-political NGO run by the volunteer students of Dow Medical College (DMC). Established in 1979 by students with the motto of ‘We Feel, We Serve’, this organization started off with a cabinet of medicines and took up the task of providing basic health facilities to the deserving patients free of cost. PWA Drug Bank provides medicines and expensive injections to the admitted patients of CHK. Established in 1982 with the aim of discouraging professional blood sellers, PWA Blood Bank is a service of one of its kind, providing free of cost blood and blood components including packed Cells, Fresh Frozen Plasma and Platelets to patients from l hospitals of Karachi. The blood bank has provided one million blood bags in 29 years, and the journey continues. In 1986, PWA Diagnostic Laboratory was set up to provide basic investigations for the admitted patients in evening and night. With the start of new millennium, PWA Follow Up Clinics were instituted to treat patients with TB, Thalassemia, Diabetes, Hypertension, Epilepsy, Asthma, and other lifelong diseases. Thalassemia Services were upgraded in 2010 and are now providing comprehensive services to the registered Thalassemics.
PWA’s uniqueness lies in the fact that all services are provided completely free of cost. Being run and managed by the volunteer students of DMC, and supported by generous donors, the organization spent Rs. 45.8Million in the year ended 2010-2011. The organization is situated within CHK and can be reached at 021-32735214 or through email at pwachk@yahoo.com. Its website is www.pwa-chk.org.
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