Ms. Charlotte Kennedy, director of DAP [Direct Aid Programme] of the Australian High Commission in Pakistan, and Imran Khan, political officer, visited St. Elizabeth Hospital, Hyderabad, in south-east Pakistan on July 30.
Since 2001, the Australian Government and people have donated over $80,000 to St. Elizabeth Hospital through the Direct Aid Programme [DAP] for the purchase of much-needed medical equipment including an X-Ray machine, humidicribs, operating theatre equipment and hospital beds. Most recent DAP funding was to purchase an environment-friendly incinerator for medical waste.
The Australian High Commission has enabled St. Elizabeth, a non-profit hospital owned and run by the Catholic diocese of Hyderabad, to continue to provide the best possible care at the lowest possible cost to those in greatest need.
St. Elizabeth is a 100 bed hospital. It has a specialization in Mother and Child care and has an attached School of Midwifery. Through its free Mobile Medical Outreach, St. Elizabeth is the sole medical provider to over 20,000 people, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, who work as bonded agricultural labourers on the land of powerful and often absentee landlords. St. Elizabeth also provides home-based palliative nursing care for terminally ill cancer patients, a first in Pakistan.
At the press conference, held during the visit of the delegation from the High Commission, Fr. Robert McCulloch thanked the Australian Government for its continued support to St. Elizabeth Hospital. Fr. McCulloch is a Columban priest who worked for 34 years in Pakistan and was chairman of the Administrative Council of St. Elizabeth. He is now Procurator-General of the Columban Fathers in Rome.
Charlotte Kennedy, from the High Commission, highlighted the positive relationship between the Australian High Commission and St. Elizabeth Hospital. She said that it is a successful micro-aid project that delivers assistance from the people of Australia directly to people in need in Pakistan.
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