Prof Adib Rizvi calls for increased community service programs  

KARACHI: The Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation’s (SIUT) Student Volunteer Program Batch 52 summer session’s certificate awarding ceremony was recently held at SIUT. The event marked the conclusion of a week-long exercise of community services undertaken by the Pakistani youth.

This voluntary service program for school and college children, initiated by the SIUT since 2006, are weeklong programs which are conducted by the SIUT in its premises during the summer and winter vacations. The program aims to motivate and train students to perform civic duties and community services for the society at large.

The program has been well recognized by students, parents, and teachers and has received an overwhelming response. It is specially structured and formulated to motivate the students to experience life beyond their own and enhance their community service values. Till date, more than 6,400 students have completed the training program successfully.

The program began with an orientation in which students were informed of the activities that they would be involved in. The training spanned for 30 hours during which the participants also interactively engaged themselves with the admitted patients as well as the outpatients, especially the children patients.

During the training, the students rotated through various departments, including the OPDs, dialysis units, transplantation, lithotripsy, radiology, clinical laboratory, cancer, hepato-gastroenterology, and medical and surgical science units.

A very interactive and enlightening session of First Aid & Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation was imparted by the representatives of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society.

Director, SIUT, Prof Adib Rizvi, said that this program provides a window for the future generation to get a firsthand experience of the miseries and sufferings faced by our disadvantaged population. It also inculcates in them the motivation and inspiration to do something about this and how to tackle these issues which are confronted by society ranging from poverty, lack of education, and inadequate healthcare.

He stressed that the basic principle of community service is based on empathy, compassion, and commitment.

The certificate awarding ceremony included junior and senior volunteer speeches, parents sharing their views, SIUT patients’ performances, the narration of life stories by SIUT's transplant and dialysis patients, and distribution of certificates and gifts.

The students in their speeches expressing their thoughts, stating that the program has been a life changing experience.

The concluding ceremony was primarily attended by the parents, teachers, students, and staff members of SIUT, including medical professionals.