Talha Khan
WITH the passage of time we are going away from volunteerism whereas it is part of our daily life as Muslim. Just remember our forefathers, they were very keen to take part in volunteer work at local, national and International level as well. No doubt it is good initiative to celebrate International Volunteer Day on 5th December every year. I think it is a just awaking call for us to do this job. People living with disabilities, they need our attention more than the other walk of life because they neglected part of society nowadays. The volunteers, volunteer organizations and volunteers initiations need to focus on them. Pakistan has a sizable number of persons with disability (PWD).The last two censuses gave a startling number of such people, which is hardly to be believed, around one million, who are 2.38% of the total population, were shown disabled in the fifth censes carried out in 1998.
Whereas the sixth census held in 2017, the number of people having disabilities witnessed a drastic decline and reduced to 0.50% of the total population. News was music to the ear, but ground situation speaks otherwise facts, because Norway like developed country has 17% of its population with disabilities. Therefore, it is impossible for Pakistan-like developing country could have 0.50% population having disabilities, when there is no match between Norway and Pakistan regarding health facilities. Great nations do not hide bitter facts rather they dig out their issues and hammer out strategies to deal with the future challenges.
According to some reliable sources, around 15% of the population has some type of disability. However, these people didn’t include in the census because most of the people don’t know the definition of the disability. In some cases, families avoid divulging identity of their relatives having different sort of disabilities in census and disabled child are the worst a victim. In rural areas, only those are considered disabled who damage some organs in accidents. However, it is high time to accept the bitter reality in order to craft a policy to ensure rehabilitation of disabled people and to make them suitable, valuable and respectable citizens of society. Lack of access to health care professionals and rehabilitation centres prolong and in some cases worsens the disability.
Keeping in view the gravity of the situation, it is need of the hour to set up institutions, where disabled persons should be provided education and training to make them skilful citizens so they could not only live easy and respectable life but could also serve the nation. Students of department of bio-sciences of Capital University of Science and Technology Islamabad prepared a report about the volunteer and state-of-the-art institution Helping Hand Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences Mansehra (HHIRS) where professionals do volunteer work in its true sense. The sole purpose of the Institute is to provide free quality education and rehab services to the disabled people. This is project of Helping Hand for Relief & Development (HHRD). According to the report, the institute is not less than a blessing for the people of the KP; where five different departments are working to provide treatment to the disabled persons. Around 100 patients visit the institute on a daily basis for treatment and the number is increasing with each passing day. The deserving patients are being provided free treatment; whereas the well-offs could pay fees as per their free will. Doctors and other staffers are serving people irrespective of their colour, creed and race.
HHRD is providing state-of-the-art services in all rehab areas like physical rehabilitation services to the people with disabilities. People are being treated for different type of disabilities such as treatment of major spinal injuries, brain injuries, stroke, musculoskeletal disorders, amputations, geriatric conditions and injuries under the program without medicines, as patients being treated through exercise. Thousands of individuals receive a variety of treatments and exercises to efficiently and effectively strengthen their bodies and reduce pain to prevent future injury. Recognizing people with disabilities, as rights-holding and equal members of the society and actively engaging them in the development process irrespective of their impairment or other status are of paramount importance. Therefore, time is ripe to join hands to make with disabilities valuable and respectable citizens who could also play them for the role in socio-economic development of country. We, as nation, must play our part to make our disable person valuable part of our society. I think this is a right way of volunteerism and this is our fundamental duty as Muslim because Islam leads volunteerism and actually volunteerism build a nation
—The writer is a senior journalist, based in Islamabad.
