German diplomats donate Rs0.27m for eye hospital

DAIWAL, Jhelum German diplomatic community in Islamabad Saturday donated Rs 0.27 million for establishment of a trust eye hospital in village Daiwal, district Jhelum. The donation was part of the money earned from Christmas Bazaar held in the Embassy on the occasion of Christmas 2009, Press Secretary German Embassy Marianne Appleton informed during her visit to the site of the hospital. Admin Secretary Anna Schmelz also accompanied her. The hospital is being established by Parents Memorial Free Eye Trust, which organises free eye camps in the village Daiwal twice a year. A former chief tech of Pakistan Air Force Ghulam Safdar had established the Trust in 1988, which continuously holds free eye camps since then, members of the Trust informed the journalists. The Trust also runs a free library, and is now going for establishing a permanent eye hospital, as a resident of the village has donated a 2-kanal piece of land for the purpose, they further informed. The German diplomats took round of the eye camp, where a vast crowd of women and men suffering from various eye diseases had gathered for treatment, which indicated the dearth of medical facilities in the area. As many as 130 women patients had registered their names for treatment by early in the noon, Qualified doctors at the free eye camp conducted eye operations with modern equipment and also provided general medical care and treatment for gynae diseases. Other qualified youth of the village voluntarily provided their services for registering and facilitating the patients. The Trust provided free medicines, accommodation and food to patients visiting the camp from other far off villages. The diplomats also promised help in recurring expenditures of the hospital and distributed gifts among the members of the Trust and the patients. They also donated books to the free library established and run by the Parents Memorial Free Eye Trust. Mrs Appleton informed that German Embassy holds Christmas Bazaar on annual basis and distributes the money earned so in Pakistani charity organisations. The organisation to which the money goes is selected through majority votes of the employees of the Embassy including Pakistani employees, she explained.