Pakistan Launched New WHO Approved Typhoid Vaccine

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Pakistan has become the first country throughout the globe to launch the World Health Organization’s (WHO) approved Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV) to battle the epidemic of a drug-resistant strain (XDR).

The new anti-typhoid vaccine has been introduced during the immunization campaign "Mission Typhoid" started from November 19^th in Sindh province, where nearly 10,000 cases of the disease have been recorded since 2017. 

The TCV campaign is designed to vaccinate 10.1 million children, aged between 9 months and 15 years against the waterborne fatal disease. The vaccine offers a very beneficial solution to protect children from drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid, a serious illness caused by Salmonella Typhi.

“Within the two weeks, the campaign has successfully achieved 90% of its set target”, said Sindh EOC Project Director Dr Akram Sultan.

The new WHO-approved typhoid vaccines have been provided by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to the Pakistani government free of cost. “This vaccine (Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine) is pre-qualified by the World Health Organization, which means that its production is rigorously monitored by WHO. TCV is recommended for use by WHO because it’s safe and effective in granting the protection (against XDR typhoid)”, said WHO representative in Pakistan, Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala.

The UNICEF representative in Pakistan Aida Girma also expressed her views, “UNICEF fully endorses the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV), a safe and efficient way to protect children against this deadly disease”.

Health professionals have expressed their apprehension about the outbreak of Typhoid in the country. According to their statistics, Pakistan's awful sewage, water systems, low vaccination rates along the over-populated abodes are the actual reasons behind the spread of drug-resistant typhoid. To combat the situation WHO tested and approved TCV has been introduced in Sindh province to curb the deadly disease. 

However, in the initial stage, some people show resistance towards mission typhoid campaign, as some cases of minor side effects were detected in some children, but WHO, UNICEF & local doctors and pediatricians endorsed the use of the vaccine. Prof Khalid Shafi, the vice president of the Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA) said, ‘my daughter was the first child, who got the TCV shot in her arm when the vaccination campaign started in Sindh’.

As a part of the Mission Typhoid campaign, around 8000 + skilled and trained vaccinators supported the campaign along with 2 social mobilizers per vaccination team visited households to mobilize families to vaccination sites. 

It is also very important that people should be informed about the precautionary measure that apart from TCV vaccination, they should make sure to consume boiled drinking water, avoid rotten food items and always teach children about hand-washing, particularly after using the toilet.

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Accu Chek Pakistan Held 'Healthy Me' Poster Competition

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The theme for World Diabetes Day 2019 was Family and Diabetes. The theme was aimed to raise awareness of the diabetes effect on one’s family and promoting the support as well as the role of the family in managing, carefulness, prevention and acquiring knowledge of diabetes.

A lack of knowledge about this silent disease – diabetes means that noticing the early symptoms is not just a hindrance for family members, but it’s a bigger concern impacting the whole society. Do you know that diabetes was responsible for four million deaths in 2017? It was due to untreated or unmanaged diabetes that leads to life-changing impediments.

In order to create diabetes awareness in country, the Roche Pakistan, the pioneers in Diabetes Care, took a great initiative by engaging young children and school going students to highlight the significance of diabetes care, prevention, and alertness about the silent disease. The main focus was to educate them that how changing a lifestyle can prevent diabetes or help in managing it. The initiative aimed at helping students in understanding the symptoms and complications of diabetes. Diet plans were shared to teach them healthy eating routine from an early age to avoid obesity that can lead to diabetes.

The Accu Chek Pakistan, a brand of blood sugar-testing devices manufactured by Roche Diagnostics, organized a poster competition ‘Healthy Me’ as a drill to tell young minds that healthy living amongst children ensures a healthy future. 

Children were asked to draw, make posters to express their knowledge about World Diabetes Day theme; Family and Diabetes. The contest further enabled students to absorb the maximum information about the symptoms of diabetes and how Accu-Chek can help to monitor blood sugar levels.

The Healthy Me poster contest was judged by cricketer Mr. Wasim Akram, who himself is a diabetic patient and an inspiration for many people who want to be active and fit. The competition administration received hundreds of entries from schools all across Pakistan showing that such activity can really promote awareness among children and their families.

Following are some of the creative posters and illustrations that children made to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle and diet to prevent and control diabetes in families and children.

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Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan Celebrates World Orphans' Day on 15th Ramadan

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Have you ever thought how does it feel to be alone, to have no familial support, to have no parents? Have you ever imagined how difficult life might be for the children who don’t have their parents to love and support them unconditionally and protect them from every possible disaster?

Pakistan Orphan Care Forum put forward the request of declaring 15^th of Ramadan as a day for orphans as proposed by Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Not only did POCF get this request approved by the National Assembly of Pakistan and Senate but also started a campaign on public forums to celebrate this day. 

Pakistan is hosting nearly 4.3 million orphan population. The war situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Palestine continue to make so many children lose their fathers or both parents. There are more than 70 thousand such families living at the borders of Turkey and Syria. The way to God Almighty’s happiness and will is to think that these orphans are not our ‘compulsion’ but a means of our peace and happiness. 

Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan supporting orphans in two ways:

1. For kids who don't have any relatives to take their responsibility, they are sheltered in Al-Khidmat's orphanages called Aghosh homes.

2. For kids who are living with their relatives or mothers: Al-Khidmat financially supports them within their households by bearing educational expenses and giving these kids hard cash to manage a childhood like other kids.

Al-Khidmat Foundation has developed a well organized network for orphans - There are 10 Aghosh homes in Pakistan . Each kid there is supported by one or more donors. who can go there any time and meet kid they support. 

The 10 Aghosh homes by Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan have:

1. - Gigantic buildings
2. - Air condition and heating
3. - Computer labs - Education till Matric
4. - Coaching classes
5. - Home like food
6. - Home like facilities and furniture 
7. - Very kind Caretakers 
8. - Indoor and outdoor play areas. 

There are two Aghosh homes in Turkey and Syria too. 


On this World Orphans Day, come forward and support Al-Khidmat  Foundation with donations. 

For donations: https://alkhidmat.org/akf-donations or call 0800 44 44 8.

Let’s come together this 15^th of Ramadan and do whatever we can for these 4.3 million orphans and continue it in the years to come. 

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Book Review: Ayesha Marfani's In The Light Of Seerah Is All About Strong StoryTelling!

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Parents should encourage their young children to read at an early age. For this purpose, one should fill kids’ room with colorful books so that they will find book more attractive rather than watching TV or playing a video game. The books choice should be as per child’s interest and hobby.

To motivate a kid to start reading, one should become a role model who spends a specific time for reading. We all know that reading and storytelling actually promotes intellect growth and imagination. It also trains kid how to use a language properly as well as gives emotional depth for future life.

Apart from fairy-tales and other books, give your children books about historical and religious role models so that they can take inspiration from such models. Nothing can be a marvelous example of role model than the life of our Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). You can tell a lot of things about his life to your kids but I have a wonderful solution for telling it to children in a more easy way.

Recently, I have read a book, In the Light of Seerah, written by internationally acclaimed author Ayesha Marfani. This book covers the whole life of Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) in a very simple language that would be perfect for young children to understand. The book comprises of 25 stories with short to the point chapters. Each story has a lesson about problems of daily life, for instance, harassment, mistreatment, tolerance, courage etc. By reading these kind of stories, young kids can understand how Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) always prefer to deal such issues in his life. 

At the end of each story, the incidence of Prophet’s life reveals how one should act with other people, liars, hypocrites, and deals with victimization, grief, and negativity while maintaining the bravery, honesty, patience, peace and true qualities of a leader.

In The Light Of Seerah is a wonderful book for children to learn so much from the life of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and its application in one’s daily routine. The language of the book is simple to understand and the overall content is engaging that will compel children to read it again and again. 

Having a genre about fiction, fantasy, and children's book, Marfani’s storytelling is so powerful that not only children but even adults would love to read the stories for their simplicity and strong moral lessons.

In the Light of Seerah is now available for RS 850. You can order more books by Ayesha Marfani through this link.

Order Your Book

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