Support Pakistan's Disaster Affected Communities

Mental Health Professionals, Orthopedic Surgeons, Eye Specialists Helping CDRS Beneficiaries
(Please see photos of Dr. Chaudhry's work attached with this report) 

Dr. Rukhsana Chaudhry, a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology of the George Washington University volunteered with CDRS in May to work with women, girls, and boys during a mental health relief mission in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Dr. Chaudhry and CDRS visited the Pehli Kiran School System and introduced a self-esteem and empowerment model to work with girls who were identified as at-risk by their teachers. She also introduced a bullying prevention and education initiative while working with both boys and girls. Dr. Chaudhry worked with 48 children where she established twice weekly counseling groups, consisting of gender-specific groups. All the children were between the age of 6 and 14 years. In the younger–aged groups, she utilized art-based therapy techniques to explore the histories of the children and current environmental stressors while living in and around the slums of Islamabad. With the older-age groups, she utilized role-playing and a safe-space model, which ehlped the children explore ways to manage stress and to cope with violence in their communities.

Dr. Chaudhry also visited with the girls of our partner Saba Homes in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Saba Homes is a home for girls who have lost their parents and some have faced trauma before being rescued by Saghir Aslam and the wonderful staff at Saba Homes. Each of these girls expressed loneliness, confusion and struggle as they began to discuss their stories of losing their parents in the Kashmiri earthquake or due to illness. Utilizing a “Girls Only Safe Space” model, each of the girls shared feelings they had not shared before and began to put their own stories together which will help with their emotional recovery from the past tramua they faced. Dr. Chaudhry worked with 18 girls at Saba Homes.

Dr. Chaudhry also spent a day with teachers at Pehli Kiran School, where she provided training to teachers on bullying prevention and intervention. She also provided training on recognizing signs of trauma in children and ways to talk to children about their feelings when the teachers believe a child is struggling with difficult experiences.

Orthopedic and Eye Camps in Swat This Month
CDRS staff will be assisting visiting doctors who are volunteering at the Swat Health Facility to provide Orthopedic Surgeries from June 16 to 22. One of the finest Orthopedic specialists in the World, Dr. Amhad Gulzar, will be leading the team in performing knee, shoulder and hip replacement surgeries and will also treat the patients who suffer from polio deformities. An Eye Camp will also be held at our Swat Facility from 27 June to July 1. 1,500 eye patients are expectee to be treated.