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Karachi’s Indus Hospital conducts blood drive at neglected Rehri Goth fishermen settlement

Karachi: To mark the International Day of Volunteers yesterday, the Indus Hospital (IH), Karachi’s biggest charitable healthcare institution, went to Rehri Goth, a faraway settlement of fishermen near city’s least developed coastline in Bin Qasim area, to conduct its blood donation drive in the most beneficial manner for the prospective donors of the neglected rural area having no civic infrastructure.

“We have to extensively conduct our blood drive during the ongoing COVID-19 health emergency owing to the phenomenal shortage of blood for ailing people whose survival depends on blood donation,” said Yawar Mirza of IH’s Blood Centre.

Mirza said the IH had been conducting blood donation campaigns since 2013 not just for its in-house patients of pediatric cancer but also for different Thalassemia centres and Burns treatment centre in Karachi.

He said the IH provided the blood to its partner healthcare institutions free of charge under its extensive charity work.

He said that prior to blood donation, the prospective donors went through a process of extensive screening to determine suitability of their health for the donation. “We have made COVID-19 infection part of our screening process so to make best of effort not to collect blood from the patients of coronavirus,” he said.

He said that blood donors were informed about their hemoglobin level, blood pressure, blood group, and pulse rate as part of the IH’s screening process.

“Apart from this screening process, we also conduct tests of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Syphilis, and Malaria, in order to determine suitability of the health of prospective donors to use their blood for people suffering from different blood disorders and cancerous diseases,” he said.

The IH official said that all this testing and screening facility for the blood donors was conducted free of charge to make them aware about level of their health and fitness to participate in such a voluntary donation drive.

Health awareness

“We have been collaborating with the non-profits Shahid Afridi Foundation (SAF), Green Crescent Trust (GCT), and Milkar.com to conduct this blood donation drive to spread health awareness among the residents of the remote and underprivileged areas of Karachi,” he said.

Milkar.com is a newly launched non-profit initiative to provide a common interactive platform to the charities and individuals to do philanthropic work for noble social causes in Pakistan collaboratively.

“Our 150 charitable schools in backward areas of Sindh are fully available to conduct such a blood donation drive during the coronavirus emergency,” said Musaddiq Aziz of GCT.

Abdul Qadir of SAF said that celebrity cricketer Shahid Afridi had directed his charity to participate in the blood donation campaign to safeguard and improve the health status of the people of underprivileged areas of Karachi.

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