Dr. Saima Zafar Chairperson SWDRC 2007.

The Social Welfare Disaster Relief Committee (SWDR) began 2007 with a hope to follow the wonderful accomplishments of the past year. Our committee members worked with dedication as we brought up new projects, essentially on a monthly basis. We set targets for their completion and formed subcommittees so that some of us could focus closely on each facet of the project. I am happy to say that we collected approximately $200,000 combined for the 2007 projects, mainly from our membership. The SWDR committee members donated generously each time we asked for funding, whether it was for Street Children in Karachi, or the Cyclone in Bangladesh. We launched a website for Breast Cancer Awareness http:appnahayat.org. This was an important milestone for us. APPNA operated a booth for breast cancer awareness at ISNA 2007 convention to educate the Muslim women from all ethnic back grounds.

A TV program, Safeer-e- Pakistan, was produced on Breast Cancer Awareness, funded by the Committee members, Dr. Naser Qureshi and Dr. Omar Atique. A Bone Marrow Registry for individuals of Pakistani origins was initiated, as a first one on behalf of APPNA. This was done in partnership with SAMAR (South-East Asian Marrow Registry). We started the ground work on establishing an endowment fund for our committee. This is still in the process and will be completed, God willing, in 2008. Hepatitis B and C prevention education in Pakistan is another project we developed with the help of a transplant hepatologist trained at University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Shahid Habib. This is being piloted in partnership with The Citizens' Foundation, using their secondary school teachers and children, as the first group who will be educated on Hepatitis B and C prevention. Other important projects included Street Children in Karachi, where 20 children were sponsored for a year to get free education and supplies. This will help them to stay off the streets of Karachi and away from sexual exploitation and child labor. The floods in Baluchistan received immediate attention with the membership donating a total of $37,000. This was distributed to Pakistan Medical Education, Edhi foundation and Red Crescent Society.

The cyclone in Bangladesh was another calamity that struck our part of the world. We again sought the help of our membership and received $10,000 that was given to Bangladeshi Medical Association in USA to be passed on for the rescue and relief efforts. A generous APPNA member donated $100,000 to the 300,000 Pakistanis who are stranded in Bangladesh and are living in deplorable circumstances. They are deprived of food, shelter and basic necessities of life on most days and the presence of health care and education is non-existent.We raised $16,000 from our membership for Layton Rahimtoola Benevolent Trust (LRBT) (Pakistan), a great organization that helps treat blindness free of cost in Pakistan. We had another APPNA member who matched this donation 100%, we were therefore able to raise a total of $32,000. Over the years different sums have been donated to LRBT.

Young physicians come to USA from Pakistan with meager means and lots of dreams. We have established a fund that will provide them interest free loans that can be paid off two to three years after they start training. This will help create a cycle that will continue to bring and nurture talent from our country and into APPNA.

The SWDRC has also recently approved to set up its own website which will have the updated information on our projects which we as a committee feel would be a great way to inform the members and the public of all the wonderful thing APPNA is part of ,www.appna-swdrc.org will be up and running soon. We thank all the members for their support and participation and look forward to any ideas and help we can get from you in future.