ChildLife Foundation  Fundraiser in Sacramento Draws Community Support
By Ras H. Siddiqui

ChildLife  Foundation ( https://childlifefoundation.org/ ) is a unique organization which is engaged in improving the well-being of children born in Pakistan by focusing on upgrading the medical care provided to them. It has been doing this laudable work since the year 2010 by greatly improving the emergency rooms (ER) across the country in existing government hospital and clinic facilities by using their own technical skills and public donations on enhancing the facilities and systems required for treating the youngest population of the country.

ChildLife has its headquarters in Karachi, Pakistan, and a presence in the US via ChildLife Foundation America Inc. which is located in Florida. It is a registered 501(c)3 Non-Profit so our donations to them may also be tax deductible.

A fundraiser for this effort was arranged on Sunday February 18, 2024, at the Town & Country Event Center facilities in Rancho Cordova. This was the second ChildLife Foundation event arranged in the Sacramento area and the credit for the emergence of interest in this cause locally goes to three doctors from our community, namely, Rana Mahfooz Ali Khan, Mutahir Khan, and Wajahat Khan. So right off the bat here kudos to the three Khans for leading the charge here to help improve the medical care provided to children in Pakistan and assisting in saving young lives there.

After Maghrib prayers and appetizers the formalities began with Beenish Khan introducing the emcee for the evening Khydeeja Alam who did a great job here once again. Khydeeja is quite an accomplished member of our Sacramento community, and we hope she inspires more young ladies in our area to follow in her footsteps. She first invited Imam Muhammad Najeeb of Masjid Annur Islamic Center to start the evening with a recitation from the Holy Qur’an which he performed flawlessly.

Khydeeja returned and asked for a moment of silence for the suffering people in Gaza, especially the children there. She also welcomed everyone and briefly touched on the inspiring work that ChildLife Foundation has been doing in Pakistan, especially in bringing down the under-5-year-old mortality rate in the country. She called ChildLife the Champion for the Children of Pakistan.

The first speaker invited to the stage was event co-host Dr Rana Mahfooz Ali Khan who thanked everyone for coming. Rana highlighted the beauty of the Surah Rahman recited earlier and presented its English translation and stressed that we need to appreciate all the favors that Allah (SWT) has provided to us. He also thanked Dr Mutahir Khan for introducing ChildLife to us in this area, along with Khydeeja and Dr Wajahat Khan.

Khan also acknowledged Usman Khalid, Omar Khan, Imran Javed, and Tahir for their assistance with this event. Rana added that when they started, they were only able to help 375 children from our local donations at that time. The following year it was 5,000 children and last year it was 15,000 children (MA). “Our goal now is to sustain that effort and to possibly help 30,000 children this year, so please donate,” said Rana.

Next up was keynote speaker Ahson Rabbani, the CEO of ChildLife Foundation. And he certainly came prepared as he delivered an almost hourlong presentation on the role of ChildLife in Pakistan and where and how it is succeeding. This was possibly the only speech delivered on healthcare in Pakistan that also utilized the Urdu poetry of both Faiz and Faraz. From Faiz Sahib Rabbani he shared  “Dil na umeed to nahin, nakaam hi to hain; lambi hai gham ki sham, magar sham hi to hai." (The heart is not without hope, just not successful. The evening of sorrow is long, but it is still just an evening (and will pass). And that is pretty much what the situation is on healthcare in the country where ChildLife prepares to treat close to 2 million children in emergency rooms across 313 hospitals and clinics in the country annually. 

Why focus on children? They are the future of the country. The greatest miracle is childbirth, and the greatest tragedy is child death said Rabbani. He shared the fact that around 400,000 children under the age of 5 die in Pakistan each year and that in comparison, India and Bangladesh have about half the child mortality rate. And as to why concentrate on emergency rooms? Because over 1,000 children enter them every day across the country and close to 80% of the diseases are both preventable and treatable if the causes are medically addressed quickly.

Ahson also shared the condition of the ER facilities at various hospitals before and after ChildLife Foundation was able to upgrade them and that difference was like night and day. The improvements made by ChildLife were indeed drastic and very child-friendly. He blamed inequality and injustice in society for the deaths of so many little ones in Pakistan and asked why they died.  Poverty and lack of access to treatment facilities. “Pakistan mein aadmi mar jaye magar gharib na ho” (It is better for a person to die in Pakistan than be poor). He also shared his admiration and that of the entire country for the late Maulana Sattar Edhi and all that he did for the poor of Pakistan.

It is not possible to relay all the information that the CEO of ChildLife Foundation shared at this event so we will highlight just two more. There are around 500 Tehsils (sub districts) in Pakistan and ChildLife has so far reached 313 of them. With our assistance, they would like to reach all 500. And Telemedicine is also an area which ChildLife is concentrating on. 

And finally, it is important to share here the reaction to ChildLife activities in Baluchistan, the province, the one with the largest land area but with the poorest and most restive people. People there react to the good that ChildLife has done for them and their families. In Baluchistan, the “Karachi Valay Doctors” (Doctors from Karachi) are now being identified and appreciated by name for their good work. Now that is nation-building!

A short fundraiser that followed the Rabbani keynote was conducted by Dr Mutahir Khan assisted by the very inspirational Usayd Azhar. Dinner was served soon after followed by entertainment. It was a pleasant surprise that we had American (okay almost Pakistani and almost Muslim-adopted) standup comedian Jeremy McLellan here from South Carolina. Jeremy shared his experiences with Pakistanis in Pakistan and here in the US including their “free range” children and his difficulties with the Urdu language while trying to differentiate between a Gora (white man), a Ghora (horse), and a Khota (donkey)! He was hilarious.

The evening closed with a musical trip down memory lane as a trio of singers namely Kishore Junior, Naz, and Ron entertained the audience. Some of us had not heard of them before and we hope to see and listen to them again soon. They performed here at the end of a very long evening, and we did not get to fully enjoy their versions of old Indian and Pakistani hit songs. It was still a very nice performance by them.