ComNewsAlshifa

Gala Banquet and Fund Raising Event
The Al - Shifa Foundation
North America
The Holiday Inn - LAX
June 5, 2004

Whether you are seriously into running for a cause, volunteer yourself for an NGO or simply wanted to contribute for humanity, the Society has an event for you. A similar event was observed on June 5, 2004 at The Holiday Inn – LAX for elites of the community who never let a chance go by without contributing for a great cause. The theme was to raise funds for a renown Trust called Al-Shifa Foundation, a WHO approved NGO which runs comprehensive Eye Care centers in Pakistan.

The community was called upon by the new President of Al-Shifa for Los Angeles wing, Mr. Ahmed Ali, not only to share the cause but also witness the process of giving lights to eyes who in future will be able to witness contributions for them. To elaborate the learning, the President of Al-Shifa Trust & Foundation, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Lt. Gen. (retd) Jahandad Khan president the gathering and honored the distinguish guests. Keynote speaker also included, the honorable, Mr. Noor Muhammad Jadmani, Consul General of Pakistan, Los Angeles and Dr. Badrudin Kurwa who explained the core of the cause Al-Shifa is base on. Evening was hosted by Dr. Mansoor Shah, one of a key member for Los Angeles wing.

The optimistic, Lt. Gen. (retd) Jahandad Khan gave a bird’s-eye view of Al-Shifa Foundation through his speech that it is now one of the very few institute in the country where disease-specific clinics (Subspecialty Clinics) have been set up to provide state of the art eye care. Though treatment of “Retinal Disease" is very expensive, time consuming, and requires highly skilled professionals, this clinic has four qualified specialist equipped with advance technology who deals with 40-50 such patients daily being referred from all over the country”, he added. The guests were also told that for quality assurance, Al-Shifa always invited external evaluators in order to know the weakness and strengths. “…… being a WHO Collaborating Center and an apex national eye institute, Al-Shifa has taken great strides in its first 14 years of life. The achievements are extraordinary; the amount and quality of clinical care, the level of post-graduate training and dedication and commitment of the staff can be compared with any institution in the world. I can safely count Al-Shifa to be one of the role models for developing countries”, commented by Dr. Pararajasegaram of WHO.

“Al-Shifa not only has best of the equipments, facilities and highly qualified specialist, it remains open from sunrise to sunset except for lunch break. About 70% of the patients are treated free; another 25% patients are highly subsidized and only 5% patients pay full charges”, Lt. Gen. (retd) Jahandad Khan affirms.

The program was attended by elites from different walks of the community and generously raised $62,000.00 for the trust which will ultimately help hundreds of eyes to see again and will make heats say blessings for their patrons. The event was a complete success and we hope that Mr. Ahmed Ali will honor us again with such a great cause.