Youths urged to tackle social issues

KARACHI : Eminent urologist and Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation (SIUT) Director Prof Dr Adib Rizvi has advised students to serve ailing humanity, saying that the youth are responsible for tackling a variety of issues faced by society, ranging from poverty and lack of education to poor health care.

Addressing the certificate awarding ceremony of the 51st batch of the SIUT’s student volunteer programme for the winter session to mark the conclusion of a week-long exercise of community services, Dr Adib said that basic principles of every community service are based on empathy, compassion and commitment.

He said this programme at the SIUT gives students an opportunity to assist those unfortunate members of our society who bear the twin burden of poverty and illness. This voluntary service programme for school and college students has been initiated by the SIUT to inculcate values of love and humanity, and respect for human rights, as well as to strengthen the community service values for society in the students.

The module of this programme is specially structured and formulated to motivate students to experience life beyond their own. The programme has been well-recognised by students, parents and teachers, and has received an overwhelming response.

Since the inception of the programme, 6,286 students have successfully completed their training. The programme began with an orientation in which students were informed of the activities that they would be involved in. During the training, students were rotated through various departments, including OPDs, dialysis, transplantation, lithotripsy, radiology, clinical laboratory, cancer, hepato-gastroenterology, and medical and surgical sciences. The training spanned 30 hours, during which the participants also engaged with the admitted patients as well as the outpatients, especially child patients. The certificate awarding ceremony included speeches by junior and senior volunteers, SIUT patients’ performances, narration of life stories by the institute’s transplant and dialysis patients, and distribution of certificates and gifts.