Rochdale Sahiwal Working Party visit Pakistan

Rochdale Sahiwal Working Party at the Lakson Medical Trust Eye Hospital in Sahiwal

Three members of the Sahiwal Working Party recently visited Sahiwal and held a three day free eye camp in Chichawatni, one of the townships in Sahiwal, Pakistan.

Jawahar Uddin, Ghulam Rasul Shahzad OBE and Saeed Ahmed Dar visited the town where Dr Hassan Awan operated on more than 600 eye patients.

The visit provided an opportunity to those visiting to see various free eye hospitals and their good practices in the Punjab Province. The Working Party also got to look at the issues affecting eyes and how best these could be solved and discussed the coordination and co-operation amongst the hospitals.

Members of the delegation met with the Governor or Punjab, Mohammad Sarwar, a former British Member of Parliament from Glasgow. He was supportive of the twinning link and showed support for the eye camp.

He also showed his appreciation for the water filtration plant recently installed in the hospital in Sahiwal. This was done jointly by the Sahiwal Working Party and the Al Mahmood Foundation in Rochdale/Sahiwal.

The delegation also looked at adopting a sewing school for women in the grain market, Sahiwal which is situated in a very deprived area and is serving 40-50 women and girls from a very poor background. The school is currently providing sewing, computer, education and cooking classes.

Ghulam Rasul Shahzad OBE, Public Relations Officer for the Working Party said: ““The visit was very successful and I hope that the delegation will visit Sahiwal again in the near future and that the eye hospitals will coordinate and co-operate with one another to provide better services to the needy members of the community.”