By Syed Mussarat Khalil
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Friends of Shaukat Khanam Memorial Trust Jeddah-KSA hosted Sahoor at La Terrasse Al-Khalidiyah in honor of donors and well wishers in recognition of their support and cooperation for the hospital.
Zulqarnain Ali Khan, CEO Zultec group, Saudi Arabia, was the chief guest on the occasion.
Tariq Azam, director marketing Shoukat Khanam Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH), gave a brief presentation on SKMCH and explained about the current operational system and future projects.
He explained that 75% patients are getting free treatment and the hospital is earning 40% income from paid patients. From the same income the hospital is paying staff’s salaries and meeting other operational expenses.
He further said that Zakat is purely spent for treatment of poor patients and not for any project. The hospital is maintaining 122 collection centers countrywide.
Answering a question he told that success rate of the patients is 80%. Quoting a survey he told that yearly 110K patients in Pakistan are suffering with cancer and out of them 60K patients approach SKMCH for treatment.
The current capacity of two hospitals (Lahore and Peshawar) is up to 10k so priority is given to curable patients. The hospital has a standard policy which is being strictly complied with.
Ms. Nosheen Waseem, mother of 2 cancer children with cancer, shared her story with the guests. She explained how she faced the highly painful situation when she lost 2 of her young children. (Hamza and Hin’a). She was nominated representative of SKMCH in Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Shams Toor, economist from IDB, addressed the guests and explained facts and figures. He further quoted the reference of Qur’an and Hadith as motivation to support poor patients. His talk gave a very positive effect to the guests.
Zulqarnain Ali Khan said “Pakistanis are the most generous people in the world.” He appreciated the efforts of Zafer Ali Talpur in his efforts for SKMCH and paid tribute to the late Ahsan Rasheed.
He also appreciated support of the event organizing team of 6 professionals, including Umair Abid, Qaiser Javed, Adnan Farooqi, Abdul Rauf Mughal and Zahid Awan led by Furrukh Rasheed. He thanked all participants.
Earlier the event began with recitation of verses from the Holy Qur’an by Syed Rashid A. Shah. A video message of Imran Khan for Shaukat Khanam Hospital was screened. The event ended with Sahoor.
