US NGOs offer support to Paraplegic Centre

PESHAWAR: Maria Toro, Assistive Technology Adviser of Momentum Wells for Humanity, an American welfare organization for the disabled, visited the Paraplegic Centre Peshawar (PCP) in Hayatabad on Friday to assess the needs of the facility.

A team from Relab HS, a consortium of five international NGOs, also accompanied her on the occasion.

They included Ehab al Khatab, Technical Advisor of Relab HS and Country Coordinator Waqar Qureshi.The representatives of the organisation met the patients suffering from spinal diseases.

Syed Muhammad Ilyas, the PCP chief executive officer, while briefing them, said the centre is the only health facility in Pakistan and even in the region, where spinal cord injury and polio patients receive treatment along with complete physical, psychological and social rehabilitation.

The PCP chief added that all facilities are provided free of cost. He told the team that all assistive devices, including active wheelchairs, are locally designed for the patients.

The patients admitted here are provided with devices and supporting equipment according to their needs and physical structure, while on the other hand, valuable foreign exchange is saved as well.

Maria Toro also visited the Assistive Technology Programme and Factory of PCP established in the Hayatabad Industrial Area and saw its various sections. She was impressed by the performance of the institute and the quality of the equipment manufactured there.

Expressing her views in the guest book, she wrote: “The PCP is the best example of comprehensive physical rehabilitation and it can play the role of a model institution for all developing countries”.

She assured all-out cooperation from his organization and international consortium to make the centre more active and dynamic.