Charity plans to expand services

PESHAWAR: Khyber Eye Foundation (KEF), a charity organization, plans to expand services in the city and other parts of KP to take the benefits to a greater number of people, said representatives on Sunday.

“The organization wants to broaden the impact of the foundation to serve the community in a better manner and consider extending services to include general medicines, ENT, orthopedics and other related areas,” said Chairman of the Board of Directors, KEF, Mohammad Adnan Jalil, a scion of the Khwaja family of Peshawar and son of the late politician, Haji Muhammad Adeel, while talking to reporters.

He said the constitution of the organization would be amended to ensure the accommodation of such expansions within the legal framework of the foundation.

These constitutional amendments, Adnan Jalil said, would not only reflect the evolving needs of the organization, but also enhance the capacity to contribute to the well-being of the greater community.

“We request the resourceful people, particularly the philanthropists, to donate generously to the foundation and expand its operation here and to other parts of the province,” said Adnan

Jalil.

Obaidullah Siddiqui, the focal person of the foundation, said that besides eradication of blindness, the foundation currently was engaged in various other projects to accomplish its mission.

Siddiqui said late Haji Mohammad Adeel, the son of a great freedom fighter, Hakeem Khwaja Abdul Jailil Nadvi, had requested the then chief minister Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan for the establishment of the hospital.

“The then chief minister generously provided the land for hospital construction and also gave a grant of Rs.2 million towards the cause”, he recalled while praising Sardar Mahtab for his support. Sardar Mahtab laid the foundation stone for the hospital in 1996 and the facility was made operational in 1998.

The construction was carried out under the supervision of Suleiman Shah with active participation from all members of the board of directors, aiming to offer free eye care facilities to the underprivileged residents of KP, he recollected.

Siddiqui said the organization regularly arranged free eye camps in Peshawar and its surrounding areas and provided medicines and glasses free of cost.

The doctors employed at the hospital of the foundation examine 250 to 300 patients daily in the Outdoor Patients Department and perform 40 to 45 cataract surgeries per day, free of cost for the poor, he added.

Since its establishment, he said the KEF Hospital had examined 1028,772 patients in OPD and conducted 83,940 cataract surgeries thus far.The focal person said the foundation was running a School Eye Health Programme. The project team visits various schools and seminaries to check the refractive error of the students and provide them with spectacles, he explained.