Medical professionals are treating three times the normal volume of children daily in the ERs located near heavily impacted areas. Most have contracted waterborne diseases.
Ashraf Amdani
When floods destroyed his home and crops, Imam Ali was faced with a difficult reality. His family had no choice but to leave their village.
They moved to Larkana, a city an hour west. As the family struggled with life on the streets, Ali had to rush his young son, Sajjad, to an emergency room. The boy was going into septic shock.
In just four hours, Sajjad regained the ability to sit up and talk — thanks to emergency care from ChildLife Foundation.
The nonprofit provides medical treatment to sick and poor children in Pakistan, said founder Ashraf Amdani, who lives in Weston in Broward County. ChildLife was established after the country’s 2010 super floods.
Ashraf Amdani, a Weston resident, is the founder of the Pakistani nonprofit Childlife Foundation. Ashraf Amdani
Massive flooding across Pakistan in the late summer left nearly half of the country underwater and more than 33 million Pakistanis — 15% of the population — displaced. The south Asian country saw at least $40 billion in damage, with millions of homes and farms destroyed.
“The situation is really peculiar right now,” Amdani said. “It’s getting worse than during the flood days.”
Dozens of Pakistanis seeking medical attention line up outside an emergency room funded by Childlife Foundation. Childlife staff have seen more than 100,000 patients this year, a number that continues to rise due to recent flooding. Ashraf Amdani
ChildLife has 12 free, 24-hour ERs across Pakistan. So far, workers have cared for more than 150,000 flood-related patients this year.
Five of the emergency rooms, located in Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Larkana, Sukkur and Quetta, have been overcrowded since the floods, Amdani said. The more than 500 medical professionals at these locations are treating three times the usual volume of children daily.
“That’s the maximum capacity even though we are using other wards,” Amdani said. “They are getting very, very sick now by drinking ... dirty water. They have other stomach diseases because they don’t have the right nutrition.”
Medical professionals are treating three times the normal volume of children daily in the ERs located near heavily impacted areas. Most have contracted waterborne diseases. Ashraf Amdani
Young children in the country are at high risk for waterborne diseases like diarrhea, cholera, malaria and dengue. Increases in outbreaks have concerned Pakistani healthcare workers.
The nonprofit also funds free medical camps, where doctors provide treatment and medications, in severely impacted areas like Sindh and Balochistan, Amdani said.
ChildLife also funds free medical camps, where doctors provide treatment and medications, in severely impacted areas of the country. Ashraf Amdani
ChildLife also is trying to treat those in remote areas — or where infrastructure is impassable — through its telemedicine network, he said. But reaching patients with telehealth is still a challenge because of technological barriers.
ChildLife is trying to treat those in remote areas through its telemedicine network. Ashraf Amdani
While the organization treats about 1.2 million children every year, it expects that the number to grow by 250,000 due to the floods and their aftermath.
And so ChildLife has had to adapt to increasing demand, which comes with more expenses, such as buying extra beds and hiring extra workers, Amdani said. He said the nonprofit is exploring ways to address unmet needs, such as providing affordable housing and improving hygienic systems.
“Our goal now is to really ... get them some kind of place and clean water,” Amdani said. “As soon as we can get people clean water, some of them will not get sick.”
ChildLife treats about 1.2 million children annually but expects that this figure will increase by 250,000 due to flooding and its aftermath. Ashraf Amdani
How to help
You can donate to support medical care for Pakistan’s children through the ChildLife website. The organization also accepts donations through Zelle, check, bank transfer, direct deposit and Amazon Smile.
ChildLife Foundation is a 501(c)3 registered organization in the U.S., meaning donations are tax exempt. Questions can be emailed to info@childlifefoundation.org.
The organization is also Zakat-eligible and follows a strict code regarding the use of funds. For more information, visit ChildLife’s Zakat use policy.
“We are desperately looking for more funding,” Amdani said. A donation “can go long way to save thousands of lives.”
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.
