President urges community action to combat thalassemia

LAHORE: President Dr. Arif Alvi emphasised the necessity of community efforts in preventing thalassemia among children, advocating for mandatory testing before marriage.

He was addressing a prize distribution ceremony of Sundas Foundation, as a chief guest, held here at Governor’s House.

In his address, President Alvi quoted the example of England regarding success in thalassemia control due to proper awareness, while Pakistan had to face shortage of blood donations for thalassemia children, adding that even with extensive campaigns, this shortage could not be overcome.

Alvi further said that Pakistan has 26.2 million children out of schools, while our neighbouring countries India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have accomplished almost 100 per cent enrollment rate.

He said that Pakistan built 50,000 schools in Punjab since its inception, while the state needed equal number of more schools to educate such a large number of children. He said that Pakistan has more than 2.5 lakh mosques, and proposed that those could be used as educational centres to address the issue.

He said: “Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) gave status of community centres to mosques and Islam gave us golden principles for society; we all should get inspiration from Quran and Sunnah”.

China made progress and achieved prosperity by focusing on education and health of its population. He said Pakistan has the fifth biggest population in the world, which has immense potential for growth. The president stressed the best utilisation of this workforce.

Thanking the people working for thalassemia elimination and serving humanity, he said that they are our heroes and they would stand honoured before Almighty Allah; they should be given respect, and recognition of their services.

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Dr. Arif Alvi lauded the philanthropic individuals and organisations for their generous financial support towards the treatment of these otherwise expensive medical conditions.