Daily Times

The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) held a certificate awarding ceremony on Saturday for its voluntary summer programme, marking the conclusion of the 50th batch of the week-long exercise of community service.

The week-long programme organised by SIUT is conducted during the summer and winter vacations with an aim to motivate and train students to perform civic duties and community service.

SIUT director Professor Adib Rizvi and prominent social worker and founder of the volunteer programme, Ms Kishwer Zehra, presided over the ceremony.

Highlighting the importance of volunteerism in a society, Prof Rizvi reminded the volunteers that they have heavy responsibility to tackle a variety of issues ranging from poverty to health care. He said the basic principles of community service were based on compassion and commitment. Ms Zehra also underscored the importance of social responsibility and asked the volunteers that their training must go on to benefit the less privileged. “Serving the people is like worship,” she said.

During the training, which spanned 30 hours over the week, intermediate and O/A level students hailing from all major schools and colleges were attached with various departments, including the Out-Patient Department and departments of radiology, clinical laboratory, oncology, dialysis, transplantation, lithotripsy, and medical and surgical sciences.

The participants engaged with patients admitted in hospitals as well as those under treatment in the outpatient ward, including children.

The batch comprised 176 students, bringing the total number of students who have benefited from the programme, since its inception in 2006, to 6,136. The certificate awarding ceremony included speeches by junior and senior volunteers, patient performances including those in which life stories were narated by transplant/ dialysis patients and certificate and gifts distribution. The concluding ceremony was attended by teachers, parents, students and staff members of SIUT including doctors.

Published in Daily Times, June 24^th 2018.