KEF Playing Remarkable Role Against Blindness

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Mar, 2024) Khyber Eye Foundation (KEF), a charity organization is playing remarkable services in eradication of blindness, convert disabilities and contributing to poverty alleviation.

Talking to this scribe Obaid Ullah Siddiqui, a focal person of the foundation said that beside eradication of blindness, convert disabilities, the foundation currently is also actively engaged in various other projects in order to fulfill its mission.

The organization is renowned for holding free eye camps in Peshawar and its surrounding areas, regular basis and provides medicines and spectacle glasses free of cost.

The doctors employed at the hospital of the foundation examine 250 to 300 patients daily in OPD (Outdoor Patients Department) and also performing 40 to 45 cataract surgeries per day, free of cost for poor (Mustehkeen-e-Zakat).

Since establishment, the KEF Hospital has so far examined 1028,772 patients in OPD and also conducted 83,940 Cataract Surgeries.

The Hospital was started in 1998, marking the foundation stone of the Khyber Eye Foundation Hospital in 1996, by then Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan.

To acquire land for the hospital, late Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel requested to the Chief Minister Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan, through whose efforts the hospital came into existence.

The chief minister generously provided the land for hospital construction and also gave a grant of Rs.2 million towards the cause. The entire construction of the hospital was carried out under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. Suleiman Shah (late), with active participation from all members of the board of Directors, aiming to offer free eye care facilities to the under-privileged residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Foundation has evolved into a leading organization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, registered as a Charity Organization. It holds certification from the Charitable Commission, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Health Care Commission, Directorate of Social Welfare KP, and Certificate of Registration of Societies Act XXI of 1860.

The KEF has also been certified as a non-profitable organization (NPO) by the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) Islamabad and now it stands among those few organizations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which are authenticated by the PCP.

The Foundation is also running a school Eye Health Programme. The project team visits various schools and seminaries of Peshawar and surrounding areas to check the refractive error of the students and provide them spectacles.

The incumbent Chairman of the Board of Directors, Khyber Eye Foundation, Mohammad Adnan Jalil said that the organization wants to further broaden the impact of the foundation to serve the community in better manner and consider extending their services to include general medicines, ENT, orthopedics and other related areas. So, for this purpose, they are also wanted amendment in the constitution of the organization to ensure accommodation of such expansions within the legal framework of the Foundation.

These constitutional amendments, he said will not only reflect the evolving needs of the organization, rather also enhance the capacity to contribute to the well-being of the community.

Mohammad Adnan Jalil has also urged the resourceful people particularly philanthropists to donate generously to the foundation and extend its operation to other parts of the province also.

APP/aqk