Child Aid Association

Report on the Activities of Child Aid Association for 2008-09

It is my proud privilege to present the annual report of Child Aid Association. I had to take over from my very energetic colleague Dr. Salman Burney who proceeded for training abroad in July 2009. I have tried to make the report comprehensive and omissions may please be condoned. The period under report is full of activities and challenges through which the Association has come out successfully.

Your Association completed thirty years of its life in July 2009. This was made possible due to the dedication of our office bearers, efforts of our members, office staff, the staff in the Oncology unit and in various labs, and the active support received from our donors. The executive committee held twelve ordinary and two emergent meetings. The executive committee has run the administrative and financial matters on the basis of justice and fair play whereby the interest of the patients was always kept at top priority.

Since its foundation, the Association has provided help to over one million children under treatment at the National Institute of Child Health Karachi, by not only providing expensive medicines (which were not available in the hospital or were beyond the reach of their parents) but also donating equipment for intensive care, operation room, as well as paying for special investigations not available at the hospital, costing millions of rupees.

The oncology unit established by your Association in 1999 completed ten years of service on 1st April 2009. During this period the unit registered over two thousand five hundred cases coming from all over the country. All of them were provided free investigations and treatment. Forty percent of its children are malnourished, which adversely affects the outcome of the treatment. Since April 2009, patients are also being provided nutritional support in the form of milk, kheer, custard and dates. We are grateful for the donation of milk by Mr. Hussain Adenwallah and dates by Dr. Noor Muhammad, D.H.O. Turbat, Baluchistan, on regular basis. Messrs National Foods (Pvt.) Ltd. donated ready mix packets of custard, kheer and their special high protein powder, from which various recipes of children food are made. Our executive members Dr. Razia Hasan and Dr. Yasmin Akbani have been instrumental in convincing the management of National Foods (Pvt.) Ltd. that their new product can be used for the benefit of our patients. The product is under scientific evaluation at oncology and malnutrition units of NICH.

A much needed molecular lab was also opened by your Association in May 2009. This has been constructed through the donations of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. This lab shall provide services to our oncology patients and will be opened to the patients of the other wards of NICH as well.

A new ultrasound machine for the oncology unit was purchased from donation of M/s. Infaq Foundation and a sonologist has been appointed. Your Association arranged for the training of the sonologist at the NICVD for cardiac sonology through the good offices of the then director Prof. Azhar Farooqui.

The staff of the oncology unit is encouraged to participate in academic activities for the improvement of their knowledge. They regularly participate in the Karachi Pediatric Oncology ground meetings and attend various workshops and lectures held at the Aga Khan University. For this we owe special thanks to Dr. Ahmed Naqvi.

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Dr. Lawrence Faulkner from Cure2kids charity from Italy visited the Oncology facility twice with a view to help us in starting Bone Marrow Transplant facility for patients suffering from Thallasemia. Dr. Tahir Shamsi, another Bone Marrow transplant specialist from Karachi, also visited the facility and offered voluntary support for the Bone Marrow Transplant program.

Dr. Zille Huma, incharge of CAA oncology lab., conducted a workshop on pediatric hematology at the Hamdard College of Medicine & Dentistry, Karachi at their 7th international symposium held on 18th December 2008. Miss Saira Firdous, technologist in cytogenetic lab., presented paper at the annual meeting of Pakistan Pediatric Association held at Multan, about the type of work done and results of the tests done since the start of the lab.

During the year a PhD student from Ziauddin Medical University Karachi was allowed to conduct research related on lukemia patients.

Technology students from Baqai Medical University, Institute of Hematology, were also allowed as observers for training in oncology and cytogenetic labs.

School students from Karachi Grammar and other schools did voluntary work during their summer vacation. Couple of them made important reports containing useful recommendations during the early part of the financial year which were also published in the last year’s annual report.

Your Association also encourages academic activities that may help in the improvement of childcare. Dr. Aziza Shad, Prof. of pediatric oncology and hematology at the George Washington University conducted a ward round to discuss problem cases with staff of oncology unit. On the invitation of CAA Dr. Naheed Usmani, Associate Professor pediatric oncololgy at the Massachusetts Children Hospital, Boston, USA, delivered lecture on the update of treatment of Wilm’s Tumor ( Kidney Cancer of children), at NICH.

Workshop for the management of children suffering from Autism was arranged at NICH with the cooperation of Pakistan Autism Meet Group, Department of Pediatric Neuro-Psychiatry NICH. The lecture and workshop were largely attended and were a great success.

To meet the perpetual shortage of nursing staff, a three-month on job training for nurse aids was initiated for the students of assistant nursing course of NICH. They are paid stipend, during their training at the oncology unit, by the Association. In return, they have to sign a contract to serve as regular employees after successful training. A similar scheme for the oncology technicians is running for past four years.

The tenth foundation day of the oncology unit was celebrated by your Association on 11th April. Mr. Nisar Anjum, President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was chief guest who was accompanied by some other prominent members of the KCCI. One hundred children under-treatment were entertained by a magic show. Messrs Burger King sponsored for the children’s party and Messrs BBCL for the other guests. Mr. Shabbir of Atlas Steel Mills Karachi sent presents for the participating children.

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Messer Intel Pakistan, through their HR department, offered voluntary services to streamline the management, accounts and IT services of Child Aid Association. Their staff was instrumental in making our contact with National Foods Karachi in connection with the nutritional support program for the oncology patients. For every hour their volunteers put in, Intel paid Child Aid Association one US dollar. So a sum of $ 312/= was received from Intel. The proposals made by their team have been implemented. Ms Sanam Siddiqi, who worked at Intel, was instrumental in making our contact with Intel.

A new computerized accounting program, donated by Messrs Premier Software, was finally installed and is in use from July 2009. This will cover not only the accounts but also the inventory of stocks, patients and lab data.

The rising inflation during last year made us give pay rise to our employees twice instead of once. Also the world economic down-turn with the increase in the prices of cancer medicine and other demands from NICH patients put our financial situation / condition under strain. The Executive Committee took steps to meet the situation. Initiative of Mr. Tariq Shafi to invite Mr. Nisar Anjum, President of KCCI, at foundation day celebration proved very productive as we received a positive support from him and Mr. Ateeq Ur Rahman, Chairperson Banking Committee of KCCI. On their recommendation, M/s. HSBC and Bank Al Falah made substantial donations for the medical supplies. CEO of Bank Alfalah Mr. Sirajuddin Aziz also visited the Oncology unit. One of our Patrons, Mr. Muhammad Aman, also made substantial donations at our request. Ms Sayeeda Leghari hosted dinner for regular and prospective donors at Karachi Boat Club, where our President made a presentation about financial problems of Association. There was sound response from donors.

We owe our thanks to Dr. Saiyed Mohsin Azhar Ali and Ms Fawzia Pathan for looking after our publications. We are also grateful to Mr. Pervez Iqbal and his staff at the BBCL who are always ready to handle our publicity and publishing work without charging their fee.

We are also grateful to Messrs A.F. Ferguson & Co. for auditing our accounts without any fees and for cooperating with us in meeting our deadlines. Mr. Laliwala and his staff have always been courteous and helpful. Mr. Muhammad Aslam, our executive member, was also good enough to give considerable time in overall supervising the accounting work which would not have been possible without substantial support from our honorary Treasurer, Dr. Raj Kumar Ochani. Mr. Anzar Hasan, our member and honorary tax advisor, despite his health problems, always made himself available for the Association’s work. Mr. Hanif Bandhani, advocate, also our member, provided legal advice without any remuneration. Dr. Khalid Zafar Hashmi, Prof. K.A. Shakoor and Col. Abdi, are honorary Consultants at our labs. We owe our thanks to their devotion, keen interest and efficient management of the labs.

We owe our thanks to Ms. Ayesha Munaf, our Chairperson of fund-raising committee, for mobilizing funds particularly through her contact we received generous donations from Mr. Irafan Ghani and from ‘Barbecue Tonight’ for keeping our donation box.

We also acknowledge repeated response to our requests for donation of office equipment by Ms. Sameera Raza. Ms. Asma Ahmed has been regularly donating food supplements. We acknowledge constant financial support from M/s. Eastern Textiles (Pvt.) Ltd. We appreciate support from M/s. Sada Foundation, a sister NGO working at NICH, with supply of blood and blood products.

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We also owe thanks to FBR and income tax department for allowing us tax exemptions. Lastly we are grateful to Prof. A.G. Nagi and staff of NICH without whose cooperation our efforts to alleviate cancer disease problems faced by children would not bear fruit.

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Dr. Soofia Ahmed

Hon. General Secretary