FAiTh – Fight Against Thalassemia – A Patients & Parents Association conducted Patients & Parents Session at Thalassemia Ward in Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital on Thursday 27th June 2019

The session was attended by patients, parents & staff of Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital & Regional Blood Center.

Initially 700 patients were registered at BVH, after starting of Regional Blood Center Bahawalpur in December 2017 the number started to increase and at the moment 2700 patients are now registered with the Thalassemia unit.

Due to not enough space on the floor, 4 to 5 patients have to share a single bed.

Before Regional Blood Center patients had to struggle a lot for blood and hospital blood bank was unable to provide them timely blood transfusions, Regional Blood Center since December has started to provide safe & screened blood to the thalassemia patients according to their need without any charges and without any donor.

On daily basis Regional Blood Center is providing 50+ blood pints and on Thursday they provide 100+ blood pints.

Among 2700 patients, 100 patients are getting iron chelation medicines from government on monthly basis. Government is providing them tablet Asunra.

We met 100+ patients on our visit, briefed them about how can they take better care of themselves, how they can maintain their hemoglobin and ferritin, about prevention, about FAiTh Patient Support Group, how can they spread awareness & how can they help themselves & thalassemia center regarding blood donations.

We distributed gifts and informative material among them. All the patients loved their gifts.

Bahawalpur, is a city located in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Bahawalpur is the 11th largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of 798,509 FAiTh team traveled for 835.4 km (12 hours) with climate 39-42 degree celsius to reach the destination.

We are thankful to our district coordinator Adil Shah & his team for the wonderful work they are doing in Bahawalpur & Uch Shareef for the welfare of thalassemia patients.

We are also thankful to BVH Thalassemia Unit staff for giving us chance to interact with patients & parents, for the arrangements & support.

Chand Raat Celebration was organized by FAiTh at FAiTh office Karachi on 4th June 2019

It was an event by thalassemia fellows for thalassemia fellows.

50+ fellows and their parents attended the event, had iftar, dinner, got Eid gifts, girls applied mehndi, it was a great get-together & a chance for fellows where they met, greet and discussed a lot of things, some parents met FAiTh President Ayesha Mehmood to discuss their children health issues.. Alhamdulillah it was a fun-filled day.

Special thanks to our amazing donors for dinner, Eid gifts & dessert..

Thanks to the FAiTh family who worked hard for the event voluntarily, some members contributed for the cause by donating funds.

FAiTh Patients & Parents Association held it’s first Interactive Session & Clinic On Diabetes and Endocrinology on 16th May 2019 at FAiTh Head Office Karachi.

Event was conducted by Dr Ayesha Sheikh Consultant Endocrinologist The Aga Khan University Hospital.

The session was attended by thalassemia fellows and their parents from different thalassemia centers.

13 fellows has been thoroughly examined for endocrine & diabetes issues and prescribed treatment. More fellows will be examined in next session which will be held soon.

We are really thankful to Dr Ayesha Sheikh for her time, support, knowledge & guidance.

FAiTh Team Vehari celebrated Thalassemia Day on 14th May 2019 at Thalassemia Ward DHQ Vehari with thalassemia fellows.

Team cut cake in celebration with fellows, distributed gifts among them with MS DHQ Vehari, Thalassemia Ward Incharge Dr Quratulain & Children Specialist Dr Hafeez.

Congratulations to the entire team for the great event.

FAiTh General Secretary Muhammad Hammad travelled to Vehari on 26th April 2019 for meeting volunteers of Team FAiTh Vehari.

On 27th April he had a fruitful meeting with all the team, distributed membership cards & panaflex among them. Briefed them regarding thalassemia cause and how they can contribute in this noble cause.

On 28th April he visited DHQ Hospital Vehari along with the team. Visited DHQ thalassemia ward & blood bank.

Next day he met DHQ thalassemia ward incharge Dr Quratulain, discussed issues regarding blood bank, iron chelation medicine and FAiTh collaboration with DHQ thalassemia ward. We are thankful to Dr Quratulain for her valuable time.

Special thanks to Chaudhry Muhammad Shafiq for his guidance, time, hospitality.

We are also thankful to Team FAiTh Vehari members Ismaeel, Azeem, Asif, Syed Anas, Hamza & others

Team FAiTh participated in Walk For Cause / Walk For Thalassemia Free Pakistan & Tribute To Pak Armed Forces organized by Help International Welfare Trust on 23rd March 2019 in Karachi.

We all should work for thalassemia free Pakistan, we all should save our next generations from this deadly disease.

After walk team FAiTh had lunch together, it was indeed a very fruitful & happy day mashaAllah.

Thank you Help International Welfare Trust for the appreciation & making FAiTh a part of this great cause.

FAiTh arranged one day chelation camp in collaboration with Saylani Thalassemia Center on 13th March 2019. 15+ fellows got detailed hematologist consultation. Got their Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, HIV, Calcium, Ferritin & Vitamin D tested. 12 fellows received iron chelation as per their required dose for 12 hours. And management also gave another 12 hours dose as take home medicine.

FAiTh has aim to initiate Iron Chelation Camp for our thalassemia fellows of Karachi where they will visit thalassemia center, get their required desferal injection dose via IV in supervision of hematologist, qualified doctors & staff. So before starting the camp we organized ferritin test activity with the help of Saylani Thalassemia Center on 28th February 2019 in Karachi where more than 28 fellows got their ferritin test done in a very reasonable rates.

In next step they will have further investigation done soon inshaAllah and in the final step fellows will be enrolled for the camp.

A blood donation camp for thalassemia patients was organized by Saylani Blood Bank & Thalassemia Center at Jinnah Medical & Dental College Karachi on 14th February 2019, where a lot of medical students & general public voluntarily donated blood for thalassemia patients.

Later in the evening an event was organized for thalassemia patients at Arts Council Karachi by Dr Haseeb Child Care Foundation.

FAiTh was invited by Saylani Blood Bank & Thalassemia Center for both the events, thank you Dr Ghulam Sarwar for the invitation

FAiTh – Fight Against Thalassemia – A Patients & Parents Association conducted a Patients & Parents Session at Saylani Thalassemia Center on Thursday 28th January 2019 We briefed them about how can they take better care of themselves, how they can maintain their hemoglobin and ferritin, about prevention, about FAiTh Patient Support Group, how can they spread awareness & how can they help themselves & thalassemia center regarding blood donations & thalassemia screening.

Saylani Welfare International Trust is a Pakistani charity focusing primarily on feeding the homeless. It was established in May 1999 and is headquartered at Bahdurabad, Karachi, Pakistan. They are working on more than 50 projects related to life. They started their thalassemia center 3 years ago, with a full functional latest blood banking system, currently they have 250 patients registered.

Gifts were distributed among the patients by FAiTh. We are thankful to Saylani Thalassemia Center for giving us chance to interact with patients & parents, for the arrangements & support