Expatriate doctors reach out to flood survivors

Pakistani doctors working in America join flood relief efforts in Sindh.

KARACHI: Pakistani doctors working in America have joined flood relief efforts in Sindh. A three-member delegation of Association of Physcians of Pakistani Descent of North America (Appna), led by former president Dr Ghulam Murtaza Arain, called on Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Monday at Chief Minister House.

The chief minister informed the doctors about the devastation wrought by the floods in Sindh. According to government estimates, more than seven million people have been affected by the flood while thousands of houses, bridges, roads, hospitals, schools, and health centres across the province have been destroyed.

Shah said that Pakistani doctors, engineers, technocrats and philanthropists living abroad have to come forward and help the flood-affected people. They should participate in welfare, health and educational projects for the rehabilitation for flood survivors, he added.

Dr Arain told the chief minister that an Apna doctors’ team will visit flood-hit areas in the middle of December this year.

He said that the provincial health department will provide antibiotics while the association will distribute medicines to treat skin diseases, which are worth around Rs5 million. They will also provide other necessary medicines worth the same amount.

Pakistani doctors in America will also help construct 100 houses, with each house costing about Rs100,000, added Dr Arain.

Meanwhile, the current president of the association, Dr Manzoor Tariq, will also visit areas in Thatta, Dadu and Sukkur to provide relief and health facilities to flood survivors there.

The meeting was attended by Dr Manawar Jethani, Dr Jaffer Gulzar, Sindh Health Secretary Muhammad Hashim Zaidi and Director General Health Services Sindh Dr Capt G Sarwar Channa.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2010.