Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™ - Leading Australian Pakistani Newspaper

Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
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President APMA Dr Imran Kassam speaking at Cruise

Australia Pakistan Medical Association arranged a Eid Milan Cruise in Sydney Harbour
(Coverage by: Dr Irfan Noor and Syed Zafar Hussain)

On behalf of the APMA Executive Committee, we would like to thank you for attending the APMA Eid Cruise 2017 at Sydney Harbour on the 2 July 2017.

In our view, the event was an incredible success and on behalf of our team, we would like to thank you for spending the day with us. It was great to have the opportunity to meet so many of you face to face and it was fantastic to see so many attendees with diverse backgrounds, enjoying themselves. For the new members, welcome to the APMA family!

This year, APMA dedicate the Eid cruise to support a not for profit organisation CLAN. APMA has signed a MOU for joint partnership and support CLAN's activities in Pakistan. Here is a little about CLAN: CLAN is an acronym for Caring & Living As Neighbours. CLAN is an Australian-based, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO), approved by AusAID for Overseas Aid Gift Deductibility Status (OAGDS) and the Australian Taxation Office for Tax Deductibility Status. CLAN is dedicated to the dream that all children living with chronic health conditions in resource-poor countries of the world will enjoy a quality of life on par with that of their neighbours' children in wealthier countries. In 2010 CLAN was formally approved for association by the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) as an NGO. CLAN was proud to serve as the inaugural Secretariat of NCD Child.

The highlight of the event was the fundraising. On this day we managed to raise nearly $27,000 to support CLAN in achieving better health outcomes for children in desperate need of help in Pakistan. This was not possible without your generous support. Your donations give HOPE to these children and will go a long way in bringing change to their lives.
Once again, thank you again for being part of such a wonderful experience at the APMA Eid Cruise 2017. There is nothing more powerful than when this community comes together to share ideas, stories, achievements and support each other. We are so happy to have you as part of the APMA family!

For those who made pledges for donations on the Eid Cruise, please transfer the amount pledged into the APMA Bank account as following:
Account Name: Australia Pakistan Medical Association NSW
Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
BSB: 062 000
Account No: 1420 4932
***Please write your name in the reference area when making the transfer***

We will be issuing you with a receipt of your payment for claiming on your tax. Your donations will be 100% tax deductible. Please send us the receipt of transfer of money if you can.
We congratulate all those who supported for such an achievement & make us proud. APMA together with CLAN will be keeping you updated on how the raised money is spent. Please feel free to ask if you have any queries, Dr Irfan Noor, Secretary General, Australia Pakistan Medical Association.

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President Dr Imran Kassam Speech at APMA EID Milan Cruise

Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem,
Asalam O Alaikum,
Welcome to APMA Eid Milan Cruise Event
I acknowledge the traditional owners and also pay my respect to elders, past and present

I like to welcome the newly elected APMA executive committee team, especially new members including Dr Erum Bilal, Dr Faisal Khan, Dr Mohammad Arshed and Dr Anwar Syed. I also would like to thank Dr Naveed Shaukat, Naureen Naveed and Dr Shams Arifeen for their contribution and ongoing support.

As usual with these type of events, there is a lot work behind the scenes and I would like to thanks the entire APMA executive team, who worked tirelessly to make this event successful. But it would be unfair not to mention one name who has always been the backbone of this association and her passion and dedication for the association which enable us to turn out events like these. Please join me in thanking Ghazala Khan on behalf of the entire team and everyone present here.

I also like to thank our advisory council who have always been there:
Dr Farooq Wasti
Dr Shaukat Javed
Dr Rabab Rizvi
Dr Akbar Khan
Dr Naveed Shaukat
Dr Shabbir Haider

Our board of trustees: Dr Amanullah and Dr Mohammad Bilal.

Our guests of honour including PAA President, Mr Abbas Rana, Counsellor General of Pakistan for his ongoing support Mr Majid Yousafani , President of Pakistan Professional forum Dr Khurram Kayani, Former President of PTI Mr Irfan Bhatti, Our media partner Mr Zafar Hussain of Sada e Watan and Our catering provider Mushtaq sahib.

thanks to the members support, APMA has grown in size and our membership has increased especially from regional areas of NSW and many of whom are present which is great to see. we have also successfully formed the nationwide Council which is currently led by Dr Sayeed Khan and has members from every state in Australia and is working towards a unified national association.

Finally I hope everyone had a great Ramadan and May Allah accept out fasts and prays and allow us to continue the spirit of Ramadan throughout the year. In keeping with this thought of helping others, APMA recently signed a MOU with CLAN which is a charity that mainly look after children with chronic illnesses. They support many projects and quite a few of them are in Pakistan. To elaborate further I like to Invite a person without whom we would not be meeting here today and none of this would be possible without his vision and hard work, my colleague and friend Dr Sayeed Khan Before I leave, I like to thanks once again each and every one who is here for coming today and if I have forgotten to mention anyone's name, please forgive me and I hope you have an amazing time on this cruise with your friends and family. May Allah bless us all. Allah Hafiz. Pakistan. Zindabad.

Dr Imran Kassam M.B.B.S, FRACP, FCSANZ
Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist
Senior lecturer at Macquarie University

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AT APMA Eid Cruise - Speech of Dr Sayeed Khan

Good afternoon and Salaam Alaikum,

I would like to first acknowledge the Traditional Owners of these waters and land on which we are meeting and I pay my respects to their Elders. I also want to pay my respects to the elders of our community present here today.

Dear APMA members, it is a great privilege and honour to be part of this year’s Eid celebration. I am so glad to see the Pakistani Medical community growing every day and coming together to celebrate our great heritage and traditions.

I would like to congratulate newly elected APMA Executive team under the leadership of Dr Imran Kassam and wish them all the best to take APMA forward.

I feel that everyone here today is very special and blessed because we were given the opportunities from our parents and our country to be able to serve communities in the most noble profession in the world. We are even more fortunate to live in Australia which is a fair, prosperous and wonderful country that allows us to live amazing and peaceful lives full of opportunities.

However, we are the lucky ones. Today, there are millions of Pakistanis who don’t have support and opportunities that we had.

There are shocking statistics:
1. More than 50% of Pakistanis have no access to clean tap water and sanitation.
2. Over 25 million children have no access to education / and so on

Pakistan has lagged so far behind especially in health and education. Successive governments have abandoned health and education of the people. Currently, less than 2% of budget allocated to health and education combined, resulting in a very poor health and education system for more than 50% of the population.

We live in Australia and we are serving the Australian communities with professional excellence, however we can also help and assist Pakistan. APMA want to support all initiatives that will transform Pakistan into a modern, enlightened, and developed country with a good health and education system for all Pakistanis.

Recently APMA and CLAN have joined hands to achieve these objectives and we are embarking on initiatives which will impact on health outcomes for Pakistani’s, especially children and their families who are living with chronic health conditions.

Now I will invite Dr Kate Armstrong the President of CLAN to say a few words about CLAN and our shared mission and initiatives.

Thank you, Kate.

Australia is our home and we serve this community with our hearts and mind, but at the same time our heart aches for the suffering of the Pakistani people especially in healthcare. We aspire to do whatever we can to improve the miserable lives and health of those in our home country. It is not an easy task, and often we question ourselves – how much difference a small group of people like us can make?

The Fred Hollows foundation started off by one person with a big dream. We too have big dreams, but we need your support and co-operation to achieve our dream and make Pakistan a better place.

I am certain that APMA and CLAN’s partnership will really make a substantial difference.

All the money raised today will be donated to a noble cause, which is improving the lives of sick children and their families in Pakistan through the partnership of APMA and CLAN.

Now I will request Dr Irfan Noor to get donation pledges, Thanks.