(Written By, Shazreh Shahzad)
The Rehman Foundation is an organization that is around for the last 16 years,
an organization that is helping people who are in need of dialysis for free. The NGO has
multiple centers in different cities that are operative and are always there to help the
helpless people when it comes to health issues making them one of the finest in persistently
providing the best health services in Pakistan. Moreover, it isn’t very known to people and
the purpose of writing this article is so that the readers can get informed about a very
blessed NGO that helps the needy when it comes to diseases. Pakistan is one of the
countries with the highest rate of kidney failures and due to poverty people are unable to
get a cure but as mentioned earlier, the Rehman foundation aims to put in an effort to
prevent this.
Just a week ago, I had the honor of
speaking with the chairman of the foundation, Dr. Waqar Ahmed where he talked
about starting the foundation in the first place and talked about what other
cities other than Lahore his foundation is operating in. He continued telling
how difficult it is to operate a dialysis center with free accommodations with
almost 150 patients being treated for free and yet another 100 who are waiting
to get cured. He went along with why people have this problem and why in
Pakistan it is the biggest problem health-wise, it’s because people don’t do
their tests to find out what is wrong with them since they don’t keep up to
look after their bodies. Doctor Waqar Ahmed is on the urge of spreading
awareness among people to get tested and be aware of the problems they may
adopt later. So it is very important to him that people who have the symptoms
should get tested immediately before the health gets worse since dialysis is
very expensive. The foundation is also keen to give lectures to people on how
to take care of their bodies and stay safe from any health issue that can be a problem. When asked why he started the organization in the first place, he said
that he was motivated by a young boy who died due to kidney failure because of
lack of resources and his parents didn’t know what to do since they couldn’t
afford it. And to start the foundation he spent money of his own to get the
machines and maintain a relationship of trust with others who were worthy of giving
donations to get more resources that could be enough to help with the cure. As
time went by him along with the exceptional effort of his team members of the
NGOs were able to open operative centers in other big and small cities so
people in other cities don’t have the pressure to travel when they have the
opportunity to get cured at a center in their own city.
To make more effort in getting people
aware of such NGO, he thinks students would be a powerful voice to spread
alertness among others with the benefit of social media and other mediums that
could help extend the need for donations Rehman Foundation still desire because
of some people who are still waiting in line. His team and he has managed to
get around 50 dialysis machines with the help of known people who kindly donated
to get resources. Even 17 years later, Rehman Foundation is consistent in
helping anyone who is required to get treated and organizing fundraisers to get
any means of donations so they can help the people.
Another member of the team I had the
opportunity to talk with was with Director of promotion Farah Deeba who
recently got ahold of a lot of donations through public relations and getting
people motivated to consider donating and with having a political background
many people supported the NGO and donated enough to get dialysis machines from
abroad. When the foundation was just starting out they introduced 3 dialysis
machines and today they deal with 100 people daily and treat them with high
approach no matter what for free of cost. They also approach the donors to
meets the patients so the donors know who are they are helping and the
patients know who is treating them, this creates a value in saving both lives
and humanity.
The main determination of the foundation
is to spread attentiveness regarding funds and Islamic value in a way that
back up people to encourage the cause. They ensure that they stand alongside
their patients throughout the journey and have hope in donors who are willing
to donate in fundraisers and through zakat.
As it is time to wrap up the article, I
would suggest that every one of us should take care of our bodies and get a
checkup if there’s a problem because you never when one can fall into a serious
health problem so it’s better if we take care of ourselves and others around us.
Pakistan has a gross population of over 144 million people with the majority of the
people are living in rural areas. And as Dr. Waqar Ahmed mentioned there is a
continuous number of patients who have chronic renal failure in a country like
Pakistan and the number is increasing rapidly. I would encourage all to visit
these organizations and to help the people who are still there because they
require your help in any way you want to.
Rehman Foundation also encourages people
to work with them in order to expand their centers and maintain a relationship that
can help the foundation with donations so they are able to avail more dialysis
machines especially wanting the government to support them so they get the
ability to treat the patients in a better way. Support and faith are also the
two things that people look for in each other. Rehman Foundations ensures that
there is “Health for all”.
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