Direct Relief’s  emergency grant to Murshid Hospital and Health Care Centre in Pakistan funded the purchase of $25,000 in medicines and medical supplies to treat an estimated 24,100 people  affected by the severe flooding this year.  Haamid Jaffer, director of Murshid Hospital and Health Care Centres, wrote in an email, “The affected areas have not been helped to the extent [that] the need still exists.  [The] grant is timely and will go a long way to meet the healthcare needs of the flood affectees.”

Murshid Hospital and affiliates are supporting families and individuals who have been evacuated and relocated along the roads in camps.  They are largely very poor and deprived of all possessions.  Murshid Hospital is focused on preventing the spread of waterborne disease in flooded areas of Lower Sindh, where  homes and infrastructure, including health care facilities, were washed away or submerged under water.  Women and children are among the most vulnerable.

Murshid reports that the procured medicines and supplies will be used for prenatal care and common health issues, including diarrhea, malaria, respiratory infections, and skin infections.  Medicines purchased to treat these and other issues include amoxicillin, doxicycline, cephalosporin, scabene lotion, paracetamol, and anti-malarials.

Murshid Hospital has been able to leverage Direct Relief’s grant to secure matching funds from long-time collaborator Janum Network (JN).

Direct Relief has been supporting Murshid Hospital in emergency and non-emergency situations since the severe earthquake in October 2005.