June 2000
Criminals?
Us?
S. Nadeem Ahsan, md
Given
his penchant for barbed witticisms, it might have been Winny Churchill who said
that “it is criminal to do nothing because we fear that we can only do a
little”. Now since most
mainstream spiritual and philosophical expositions advocate the avoidance of
criminality, it then follows that Dow graduates too should explore schemes for
doing so. The cause at hand is as
follows: helping the multitude of
helpless, hopeless people that cling to the bottom of Karachi’s crumbling
totem pole – the indigent that have nowhere to turn when they are in need of
medical care, be it reliable birthing services or
emergency care, preventive vaccinations or remedies for common ailments.
The problems are monumental in scale, even insurmountable, some might
argue. Can anything be done?
A little perhaps?
Whence
the Samaritan?
The
individuals who might be tempted to do a little for Karachi might be the one’s
that benefited the most from its meager resources – people like us who studied
a profitable trade for a pittance at an institution that was heavily subsidized
by the puny yet generous coffers of the public. But then samaritanism doesn’t really require any raison
d'être. Acts of kindness
don’t have need of a rationale or even validation.
They just require perpetrators – people like us – armed with the
knowledge that the greater good lies not in self fortification but in gentle
ministrations that improve the plight of the proletariat.
As some JFK speech writer so eloquently put it – “a rising tide
raises all boats”.
A
little bit of good.
There must be
myriad methods available to the aspiring Good Samaritan, but for want of a more
imaginative option, we chose the one that turned out to be quite doable.
Our project started with the notion that perfectly usable ‘used’
medical equipment from US hospitals that ends up in the depths of storage rooms
and even in trash heaps due to processes resulting from upgrading, downsizing,
etc. of medical institutions in the US, could possibly be salvaged and
subsequently shipped to hospitals in Karachi.
Several mid-western hospitals, surgery centers and medical practices were
approached in this regard. After
learning that their redundant equipment could be donated to a good cause and,
perhaps more importantly, tax deductions could be claimed in lieu, a
surprisingly large number of institutions came forward with donations of all
kinds of durable and disposable medical goods.
Using the
meager resources at our disposal, we set about sorting, sifting, refurbishing,
cleaning, packing, labeling, and storing the goods.
A Christian charity organization based in southern Ohio provided
invaluable help in organizing volunteers who shouldered the bulk this task.
Eventually, after about six months of groundwork, a shipment was
dispatched to Karachi. It consisted of a 40 foot container filled to
capacity with medical equipment. The supplies included, amongst many other
things, the following:
In all, the
shipment was probably worth well in excess of $250,000. The total cost to
us, not counting the invaluable contribution of the volunteers, came out to
slightly more than $10,000 which included costs of storage, refurbishment,
packing and shipping. Customs duties in Pakistan were waived due to the
efforts of certain well placed well-wishers in Karachi. The
entire shipment went to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) in Karachi and
in fact, most of the equipment was used to furnish the new OB/GYN wing built
there through the donations of the Mariam Ali Tabba Foundation. The
container was delivered on the 29th of April, 2000 and everything was in place
in time for the inauguration which was held on the 5th of May, 2000.
Having
established the doability of such ventures, I would like to propose that
similar exercises be undertaken on a regular basis by teams of concerned Dow
alumni in the different regions of the United States and Canada.
Each team would work independently and be responsible for generating the
requisite resources. In time, each
team would ‘adopt’ a hospital in Karachi who’s specific needs it would try
and meet.
We’ve
already started work on the next shipment, which will hopefully go to Civil
Hospital Karachi, our parent institute, with the caveat that we are able to
identify an individual there who will guarantee that the relief goods will not
be pilfered and will be utilized without concern for prevailing politics or
other biases (at JPMC, we were fortunate to have Professor Tasnim Ahsan
(Internal Medicine--DMC, class of 78) as our guarantor).
Remember
‘to serve is human’!
Your enthusiasm and resources can go a long way in organizing similar shipments in the future. Please let us know if you would be interested in coming on board Project Dow-Aid. I can assure you that the only driving spirit here is a desire to help our indigent people in a meaningful way without concerns for personal gain or self-aggrandizement. All donations (cash or equipment) will be tax deductible. In case you want more details on the hows and whys, please feel free to contact us at s.n.ahsan@att.net
The
author is a Dow alumnus (class of 1989), practicing Anesthesiology and Pain
Management in Mount Holly, New Jersey.