Daily Times

As part of the PKR 1 billion Hussain Dawood Pledge, Engro Foundation – the social investment arm of Engro Corporation – has committed to provide PKR 20 million in financial assistance to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre to expand COVID-19 testing capacity across Southern Punjab and strengthen the health sector to cope with the ongoing pandemic.

Under the “Southern Punjab Screening Program – Free of Cost” campaign, Engro Foundation will sponsor Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre to use its existing network of pathology laboratory collection centres to provide free of cost testing services to the deserving patients. To ensure maximum coverage of the rural population, the testing campaign will be initially deployed in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar.

According to Hussain Dawood, Chairman Engro Corporation, ““The rate of growth of COVID-19 in Pakistan exposes our healthcare system to a multitude of risks. It is only through partnerships that we will be able to amplify enablement and create the desired impact. Our partnership with Shaukat Khanam Memorial Hospital is based on the shared mission to accelerate testing for COVID-19, which is of paramount importance in our collective response to manage this pandemic”.

Ghias Khan, President & CEO of Engro Corporation, added that, “The gradual increase in number of COVID-19 cases in Southern Punjab has placed an additional burden on the region’s healthcare sector. It is imperative that the rate of testing is increased in these areas for early detection and control of local virus transmission.

Our partnership with Shaukat Khanum Hospital is a means to this end, whereby we will be providing free of cost testing facilities to control the spread of COVID-19”.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Muhammed Aasim Yusuf, Acting CEO of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, said that, “We are pleased to join Engro as an implementation partner to improve COVID-19 testing rates in Pakistan. For more than a quarter of a century, Shaukat Khanum has been at the forefront of providing world-class cancer care to people all across Pakistan. We are hopeful that this campaign will help us, as we now fight not only against cancer but also against coronavirus, to contain the spread of the virus and in fighting it more effectively”.

Last week, Engro Fertilizers (a subsidiary of Engro Corporation) had also announced a collaboration with The Indus Hospital to launch free of cost testing interventions across rural Sindh.

The launch of this campaign with Shaukat Khanum is part of the PKR 1 billion pledge made by the Chairman of Engro Corporation Hussain Dawood and Dawood Hercules Corporation. Under this pledge, the Group is supporting COVID-19 relief efforts in services, cash and kind on multiple fronts, including: disease prevention, with a major focus on testing and diagnostics, protecting and enabling healthcare practitioners and other key workers, who are at the frontline of the fight against this pandemic, enabling patient care and facilities and bolstering livelihoods and sustenance of the most deserving in society.