Physical Health Pakistan Project #1700

Support Pakistan's Disaster Affected Communities

by Comprehensive Disaster Response Services

Project Report | Jan 28, 2015
CDRS Continues to Serve Humanity in Bannu and Swat

By Todd and TJ Shea | Executive Director and Outreach Director

To our cherished friends,

In 2014, The CDRS Team again proved to be a small organization of great value to Pakistan. We have once again demonstrated our effectiveness in tough conditions and challenging environments during times of great hardship and need.

In 2015, CDRS continues a mission begun in July 2014 to support the overburdened healthcare system in District Bannu in partnership with Imran Khan Foundation and the KPK Health Department. The IKF and CDRS joint mission adopted the Ghori Wala Rural Health Center and is also sponsoring The Pediatric Care Unit at Women & Children Teaching Hospital in Bannu in collaboration with the Pakistan Pediatric Association. IKF and CDRS have outfitted these facilities with new medical equipment, provided a continuous supply of much needed medicines, upgraded and repaired electrical wiring and crumbling infrastructure, and bolstered existing staff with additional doctors and medical personnel to address the ongoing needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Locally Affected Persons (LAPs) brought on by the conflict in North Waziristan. Our Mobile Health Units (MHUs) continue to monitor the health status and needs of the communities residing in and around District Bannu, visiting 78 villages and camps in 43 union councils during the past six months. The focus of the MHUs is delivering first aid and primary healthcare, as well as prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, to people who lack basic necessities and otherwise do not have access to adequate basic health services. In summer the weather is extremely hot in Bannu and extremely cold in the winter. Children, pregnant mothers and the elderly are extremely vulnerable in these difficult conditions, so our focus is on serving them. Since this mission began, CDRS medical staff has provided free care and medicines to thousands of suffering Human Beings, managing 54,930 patients from July 6 to December 31 2014 (81% were females and children under 15).

In September, another emergency struck Pakistan when large floods hit Punjab Province and AJK. CDRS and IKF again collaborated to deploy five medical teams with doctors and paramedics in the most badly affected districts, providing free medical care and free medicines to 52,437 patients from September 19 to December 31 2014 (71% were females and children under 15).

CDRS has continued operating a Mother & Child Health Center in Northern Swat in partnership with Medical Aid to Pakistan (UK) and United Muslim Relief (USA). This facility serves the primary healthcare needs of the entire community with special focus on the healthcare of expecting / new Moms, infants and children. In 2014, 73 babies were born at the facility, and 504 women received antenatal care (care of mother and infant before birth), while patients suffering from dental diseases, infections, acute diarrhea, anemia, skin diseases, hypertension, etc. were able to get the treatment and medicines they needed.

While the management of our healthcare facilities and mobile medical teams remains our primary focus at present, CDRS remains committed to other noble causes and serving whenever needed.

In March of 2014 TJ Shea led our relief mission to Thar Desert, collaborating with volunteers from Karachi to bring several truckloads of food, water and medicines to communities who were suffering from drought conditions.

In June and July of 2014, CDRS volunteer Shanzay Pervaiz helped establish our new youth platform, CDRS Youth, by organizing and mentoring student volunteers, delivering food to orphanages and poor villages, traveling to Northern Swat to deliver medicines and organize our pharmacy and initiating a drive to collect and deliver relief goods to Bannu in support of the displaced people of North Waziristan.

CDRS has worked to improve the general living conditions of residents in remote villages as well. Earlier this month, we collaborated with Mariam Issa and Pervaiz Lodhie to organize the distribution of 40 portable solar-powered “Roshni” LED lights (created by Pervaiz and his company Shaan Tech) to a remote mountain village named Gohori in Neelum Valley in AJK. These high efficiency lights last 8-10 hours at full intensity and an incredible 80 hours at 1/4 strength. The lights will save poor families money used for batteries and candles and allow for safer conditions for activities at night in an area where there is no other source of electricity.

CDRS has started a new project, “Women’s Empowerment Project through Social Entrepreneurship” with world-famous designer Maria B to provide women in poor and remote villages with an opportunity to earn a good living and support our Humanitarian projects with their embroidery and handicrafts.

CDRS is assisting Naya Jeevan with logistics support in their efforts to provide long-term mental health services for children and families traumatized by the brutal terrorist attack on the Army School in Peshawar.

Please feel free to contact CDRS CEO Todd Shea or CDRS Outreach Director TJ Shea if you have any question or would like to volunteer with CDRS or assist our efforts in any way.

A HUGE THANK YOU to all of our individual and organizational supporters and donors whose faith and generosity have given the CDRS Team the strength we need to succeed in our Humanitarian mission. You are always in our hearts and in our prayers.

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Oct 21, 2014
CDRS Now Responding To Two Major Disasters

By Todd Shea | Executive Director

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Since the end of June, CDRS has been involved in a major partnership with Imran Khan Foundation to provide Mobile Medical Teams and Support to overwhelmed Health Facilities and Healthcare Systems in District Bannu, where a population of 1 million people in has nearly doubled with over 800,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have escaped the fighting in North Waziristan between the Pakistan Army and The Taliban.

We have been deploying our mobile medical teams in and around District Bannu for 15 week to houses, schools, camps or government buildings where Internally displaced persons from North Wazisristan are residing. Our team is doing a heroic job, working in extremely hot conditions to serve suffering Human Beings. Our dear friends and Associates UK Medical Aid to Pakistan and many kind individuals are generously supporting our mission with medicines, fuel, water and relief supplies. CDRS has also been managing one of the two pediatric wards at Women & Children Teaching Hospital in Bannu and The Ghori Wala Rural Health Center in Ghori Wala. Before we arrived, the facilities were completely overwhelmed by the influx of patients from N. Wazirstan. They out of medicines and supplies, the hospitals were unhygeienic and short of staff and in a miserable condition. CDRS and IKF have brought in truckloads of every kind of medicines needed, resupplied all the items needed to provide adequate healthcare, brought in equipment such as incubators and suction machines and provided extra doctors, nurses and medical technicians along with logistics staff, cleaners and volunteers. We have manged over 36,000 patients, most of them Women and Children.

For the past month we have also been deploying mobile medical teams to Districts Jhang, Multan and Muzaffarghar to provide basic healthcare services, medicines and public health education to communities who've been devastated by the recent floods in Southern Punjab. So far we've treated more than 6,000 patients. H

We plan to remain on oh of these missions until at least the end of the year. We continue to run our Mother & Child Health Center in Northern Swat, but due to donors' attention on the two major disasters, we are fast running out of resources to continue running adequate health services there. I'll be traveling to the U.S. in November and December to raise funds for the continuation of our important work, which has just crossed the nine year mark in Pakistan, as the CDRS team started operations right after the october 8 2005 earthquake, and registered as a social welfare charitable organization in Pakistan in early 2006.

Please check our recent photos of both the IDPs Medical Relief Mission and the Flood Emergency Medical Relief Mission (Links Below).

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Apr 1, 2014
CDRS 1st Quarter 2014 Achievements

By Todd Shea | Executive Director

Dear Friends of CDRS,

Here's a summary of our achivements in the first quarter of 2014. CDRS owes a very special Thank You to every one of you who have supported our work and made all of this possible!

1) CDRS is responding to a drought / famine crisis in the Thar Desert in remote areas of Interior Sindh. Collaborating with individual volunteers and partners in Karachi (Naya Jenevan, Empower the Future and Resettling the Indus). To date, this effort has put together three trips delivering food, water and medicines to more than 400 families in desperate need.

2) The Mother and Child Health Center in Northern Swat continues to manage over 2,000 patients per month, providing lab, x-ray, ulrasound, clean ward, oxgen, nebulizer, emergency services, ambulance and a fully stocked pharmacy. See photos here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.500186853337405.112203.300942176595208&type=3

3) We've partnered with World Champion Field Hockey Player Mansoor Ahmed to initiate a sports coalition of like-minded individulas and organizations who want to collaborate on sports and recreation projects for poor children in Pakistan.

4) CDRS YOUTH was formed to give students and young people in Pakistan an avenue for collaborating with our missions and volunteering their time and effort to make a better Pakistan. Our first chapters are at Jinnah Sindh Medical University in karachi and Roots International College in Islamabad.

5) The work of CDRS was personally endorsed by Humanitarian Superhero Abdul Sattar Edhi. See video here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152243628201955&set=vb.642171954&type=2&theater.

6) Famed Pakistani Sufi Singer Sanam Marvi joined CDRS as our official spokeperson. Sanam and CDRS will collaborate on raising funds and awareness of our existing projects and develop new projects in underserved areas of Pakistan.

7) CDRS joined TABA Foundation's coalition of social welfare organizations. TABA brings like-minded social welfare organizations together for collaboration and capacity building in Disaster Management, Health and Education. A coordinated effort by people and agencies who respect one another's achievements and diverse capabilities is always the best way forward in achieving optimum results in Humanitarian work and disaster relief. Creating and facilitating this coordinated effort on a national scale is the core agenda of TABA Foundation. CDRS is honored to have been invited to be a member of this wonderful network of good. We look forward to working with TABA and all of its partners in every possible way to be a part of building a better future for Pakistan and The World.

8) I had the honor of representing CDRS as a guest at the following events:
-The inaugural event for OPEN Lahore (The Organization of Pakistani Entreprenuers).
-The JSMU/APPNA Youth Day Event in Karachi, where I was invited to perform music and speak about CDRS.
-Model Unted Nations Conference (LUMUNX) at LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) where I was invited as a guest speaker and received an award from the students for my service to Pakistan.
-The TABA Education Cluster launch event at LUMS in Lahore, where I was invited to speak.
- The TABA Youth Organization event at NUST (National University of Science & Technology), where I was invited speak about CDRS and recieve an award for my service to Pakistan.

CDRS WEBSITE WITH DETAILED INFO AND REPORTS ON OUR OPERATIONS
Please take a few minutes to browse our new website http://cdrspakistan.org
(links to a treasure trove of amazing photos, videos, info and reports are provided below).
CDRS 2014 Presentation: http://cdrspakistan.org/cdrs-presentation-2014/

CDRS ON FACEBOOK
Please visit us every couple of weeks at www.Facebook.com/CDRSPK or www.cdrspakistan.org to make sure you don't miss any of our Zabardast photos and reports

CDRS has received dozens of awards for its services from various organizations, including the Tamgha-i-Eisaar (Medal of Sacrifice), a medal from The Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians and an award of appreciation for our service to Pakistan from the Association of Pakistani Physicians and Surgeons of the UK. See them here: http://cdrspakistan.org/awards/

CDRS is a tax exempt non-profit social welfare society registered under the Societies Act of Pakistan. We have 7 years of cleared independent audit in Pakistan. For our audit reports and financials from 2006 to 2012, Read them here:http://cdrspakistan.org/financial-reports/ (We have passed stringent idependent financial and program audits and have again paased our due diligence check from our US & UK fiscal Sponsor of the last 7 years, Global Giving Foundation. Global Giving is a top rated charitable organization by Charity Navigator and The Business Bureau. CDRS also has cleared each audit and review of emergency relief missions funded by UNICEF, Direct Relief International and The International Development & Relief Foundation of Canada).

Thank You for supporting CDRS. Feel free to contact me anytime if you need any further information :)

With Best Regards,

Todd Shea
Founder and Executive Director
Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS)
toddshea@cdrspakistan.org
718-809-5381

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