Friends of Indus Hospital Fundraiser in Sacramento with Bushra Ansari and Noman Ijaz
By Ras H. Siddiqui
Friends of Indus Hospital (FOIH) is a US-based 501(c) (3) registered charity which is very active in providing quality healthcare at no cost to struggling people in Pakistan. It supports the efforts of Indus Hospital & Health Network in our country of origin by raising awareness amongst the Pakistani American community and taps into our generosity and religious obligations to help patients in the Sohni Dharti.
Indus is currently assisting in the running of 13 hospitals, four rehabilitation centers and blood banks, and various clinics. And it is doing so with doctors from our community here in the United States taking a leading role in organizing fundraising events in various cities. One such event was held in Sacramento, California on Saturday March 12, 2022, at the Hilton Arden West in California’s Capital City. The fundraiser drew a good response from people across the region from Chico to Stockton and even the San Francisco Bay Area. With the addition of Bushra Ansari and Noman Ijaz, formidable star power from Pakistan television and cinema, a full venue was all but ensured.
This Sacramento event (the third in a series of ten planned across the US) was locally spearheaded by the team of Dr Maqbool Ahmed and Musarrat Malik and aided by Dr Samreen Jamshed, Beela Sheikh, Junaid Khan and Shafique Ahmed plus a group of local youth volunteers. It started off with Registration followed by Maghrib Prayers and dinner, giving people time to settle in and to accommodate any late comers. The program began with words of welcome from Dr Maqbool and Musarrat and an introduction of the evening emcee Dr Samreen Jamshed who thanked everyone for giving this effort their valuable time. She drew attention to the fact that Pakistan has given us so much, but what have we given back?
A recitation of the Holy Qur’an by Khadeeja Ahmed with a follow-up English translation by Fatimah Shams started the formalities. This was followed by the playing of the national anthems of the United States and Pakistan with singing by community youth on the stage and full audience participation and enthusiasm. Dr Samreen next provided a more detailed introduction to FOIH. She said that Indus is really changing the paradigm of healthcare delivery in Pakistan because it begins with the premise that healthcare is a basic human right. She said that 50% of the people there do not have access to basic care. Repeat, 120 million people in our country do not have access to basic healthcare. This is just astounding. People only visit doctors when they are already very sick and preventative healthcare is a challenge. The poor in Pakistan must make tough choices between getting care or saving that money for other important things (like food). Indus is trying to fill the gap by making access to medical care easier to everybody, she said. With an operating budget of $150 million benefitting more than 5.4 million people, 70% of whom are Zakat-eligible, is no small feat. Dr Jamshed’s delivery was both informative and inspiring.
And speaking of inspirational participants, the next two presenters, young ladies from our community not only made their parents but the whole community proud. Public Health professional Ammal Bashir spoke on the topic of “Indus Health Network Public Health Initiative in Pakistan.” Her details on many aspects of community health were very informative, especially the “Rabies Free Pakistan” initiative. Ammal was followed by Maryam Shams who described “Childhood Cancer Program at Indus Health Network Pakistan.” She shared the story of Sufyan, a patient at Indus Hospital who explained how his treatment for cancer diagnosed at age 10, presented many personal challenges and how the affordability factor was taken care of by Indus and how his disease was successfully treated. Maryam informed the audience that 10,500 children have been treated for cancer at Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) and that around 1,000 new cases are registered every year.
Honorary Guest, Mr Abdul Hameed Paracha, Member of the Board Fundraising Committee at IHHN-Pakistan, spoke next. He mentioned how the money we donate is used and the Duas we get from patients that cannot be overlooked. He added that he sees firsthand how patients are visibly grateful for our help. He also shared that in regular hospitals patients often enter crying and after receiving care leave crying too because of the huge bill that they receive. At Indus they may come in in pain, but they leave happy because there is no bill to follow! He added that Indus started their fundraising campaign in the US in 2016-17. Overseas assistance covered about 2% of their expenditure at that time. Today that international assistance has jumped to 14% of their budget. From the US he said that no cash is transferred, as the money is used to purchase medical supplies and goods for use in Pakistan.
The short fundraising segment was next. It was conducted by Dr Samreen and an accomplished young man from this area Sameer Kazim who said that healthcare has been a focus for him for some time. He added that the challenges posed by poverty in Pakistan are very real. He compared the cost of certain procedures in Pakistan to the average annual income of people there, hence the need for assistance. Dr Shaista Rauf, who recently visited the Indus Hospital in Pakistan, also shared her views. From the fundraising numbers reported, the Sacramento community delivered and was generous.
The final segment of the evening was entertainment featuring two prominent show biz personalities from Pakistan, Bushra Ansari and Noman Ijaz. All one can report is that you just had to be there to enjoy their skits on life, Pakistan (No Pakistani politician was spared!), and the world at large. They made a great team on stage and had the audience laughing in no time. Okay, some of the jokes were rated at least PG-13 and on the naughty side but after two years of COVID-19 our community badly needed to laugh.
To conclude, it was great to see life returning towards normalcy after two years of pandemic seclusion in our Sacramento community. Let us hope and pray that this “endemic” stays under control so that we can continue having more events for great causes like this one. Thanks, are in order to the organizers, volunteers and others who assisted in bringing this Friends of Indus Hospital effort to Sacramento along with two great stars to entertain us. Bushra Ansari may have been surprised by the old picture that we gave her, and we hope that the daughter of legendary writer and journalist Ahmad Bashir keeps it as a memento from the late 1960’s.
(This report marks my 30 years of reporting for Pakistan Link. God and the community have been kind for letting me continue this effort so long. Our family remains eternally grateful for your continued prayers)
