Al-Shifa Eye Trust, OGDCL ink MoU

Islamabad :The Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited signed a memorandum of understanding to provide quality healthcare facilities to the people of remote areas.

According to the agreement, the trust will hold free surgical eye camps is the far-flung areas of the country where the people lack quality eye care facilities. The relevant documents was signed by executive director of Al-Shifa Trust Rizwan Asghar and OGDCL manager (corporate social responsibility) Abdul Rauf Khajjak while many other officials of both institutions were also present on the occasion.

The Trust will hold 27 free surgical eye camps in the remote areas with the cooperation of the OGDC and all the facilities will be provided free of any cost to the patients. Officials of both the departments also agreed to increase cooperation to serve the humanity.

Speaking at the occasion, executive director of the trust Rizwan Asghar said that the trust was providing medical assistance to 0.25 million people annually through free eye camps; around 0.3 million were treated in hospitals, while 0.15 million children were screened and treated in schools.

He said that was not enough as more resources must be allocated to enable government and private organisations to strive effectively for the noble cause as every child must be screened once a year after initial tests.

"The trust provides free treatment worth Rs800 million annually while a plan has been devised to raise resources to assist more people without compromising treatment quality," he said. The trust director said as many as 15 per cent of the children visiting eye screening camps in different schools had been diagnosed with a problem, which was alarming and a threat to the nation's future.