Dr Javed received a standing ovation after his presentation at the Annual Islamabad International Paediatric meeting. Shortly after the floods hit Pakistan the PPA performed a survey and identified two major needs of the children in the displaced persons camps, namely vaccinations and malnutrition.
MDAUK were approached with a plan to vaccinate 1500 children against typhoid in two vaccination camps. The cost of the vaccines were met by the MDAUK, the cost of the transportation of the vaccines was met by the vaccine suppliers whilst the cost of leading local paediatricians who oversaw the vital cold chain and organised, ran and delivered the vaccination programme were met by the PPA.
This is an exceptionally effective way of MDAUK deploying its resources. By using the extensive local contacts that the MDAUK executive has we were able to vaccinate these children at a fraction of the cost that another NGO would have needed to use as they would have had to transport and supply the vaccinations whilst overseeing the cold chain storage as well as providing the people actually running the camps and delivering the vaccinations.
Malnutrition is a major problem in these kind of disasters, especially where children are involved. Malnutrition increases the number of infectious diseases that children will suffer and in addition increase the severity of any such illnesses. So it was not suprising that malnutrition was identified by the PPA survey as a major issue.
To this end, 1,100 malnourished children in a displaced persons camp near Karachi were fed with locally produced high density formula bought by MDAUK. They were fed whilst in the camp and also provided with a three week supply to take with them when they left the camps to return to their devastated homes.
