ChildLife Foundation has provided emergency care and consultation to 90,000 flood-affected children.
The organization mobilized its team of more than 500 healthcare and management professionals on ground in calamity-hit locations across Sindh and Balochistan to provide urgent medical relief to children.
“To mitigate the impact of floods on children, ChildLife has launched an integrated disaster response strategy,” said Dr. Ahson Rabbani, CEO ChildLife Foundation.
He added that it includes free emergency treatment at ChildLife’s children Emergency Rooms (ERs), tele-consultations through its telemedicine network, and treatment at medical camps across flood-hit districts of Sindh and Balochistan.
ChildLife ERs in flood-impacted cities of Larkana, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and Quetta are providing free emergency care to children round the clock.
The organization has also leveraged its telemedicine network, which spans all districts of Sindh and Balochistan, to enable flood-affected children in rural areas to get lifesaving consultations from Karachi-based child specialists.
In addition, ChildLife is conducting free medical camps for children close to their homes. Free medical camps have concluded successfully in district and tehsil headquarter hospitals, basic health units and rural health centers in Dera Allah Yar, Darya Khan, Daur, Hub, Tharoshah, Qilla Saifullah, and Odero Lal Station Matiari. At these medical camps, ChildLife’s doctors provide free treatment, medicines and referrals to flood-impacted children.
Dr. Rabbani said “We are staring at a public health emergency in the aftermath of floods. The sharp rise in water and vector-borne diseases like gastroenteritis, cholera, dengue, malaria, typhoid and pneumonia has put children at extreme risk. ChildLife is helping flood-hit children survive these illnesses through timely medical intervention given free of cost.”
Notably, ChildLife Foundation has treated 4.5 million children free of cost since 2010. The Foundation has modernized and manages 12 children’s Emergency Rooms in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.
It also runs a growing telemedicine network under which it has established telemedicine satellite centers in remote rural areas. ChildLife aims to cover every district of every province by 2030 in order to make Pakistan a child-safe country.