QC Performs 750 Surgeries for Glaucoma in Sudan

Because it always supports the neediest categories and because it always tries to fulfill its duty towards the orphans it sponsors, QC signed a strategic partnership with Hemaya Security Solutions Co. to hire more than 250 orphans of legal age in Sudan. This initiative is considered to be the first of its kind ever to be implemented by a charity organization.

Mr. Rashid Abdurrahman Al-Naimi, Qatar’s Ambassador in Sudan, Mr. Faisal Rashid Al-Fahida, QC’s EDO, and Mr. Falih Hamad Al-Hajri, Chief of Governmental Relations Department at Hemaya, supervised the starting of the interviews.

More than 548 candidates applied for the job. 400 of which were interviewed by Hemaya’s delegate Mr. Falih Ahmed Al-Hajri. The interviews lasted for four consecutive days; then 319 were selected to work for Hemaya. 250 of them were from orphans and 59 of them were from the orphans’ families.

Commendations

Mr. Rashid Abdurrahman Al-Naimi, Qatar’s ambassador in Sudan, praised the cooperation between the Qatari institutions to achieve humanitarian and charitable goals. He said it shows Qatar’s bright side.

Furthermore, Mr. Faisal Rashid Al-Fahida, QC’s EDO, commended the outcome of the partnership between Hemaya Co and QC. Such initiative will result in the enhancement of the conditions of many families.

Mr. Falih Hamad Al-Hajri, Chief of Governmental Relations Department at Hemaya, emphasized on the company’s willingness to expand its partnership and increase the work with QC under the understanding of the responsibilities of the Qatari institutions to make a positive change in people’s lives and to empower them economically. 

All of the interviewees expressed their appreciation and gratitude for Qatar and QC for such a good initiative hoping more orphans and poor families would benefit from it.

The EDO said that according to QC’s procedures and regulations, the sponsorship time ends when the orphan becomes of a legal age; 18 and above. However, QC never stops helping them until they are financially independent.

Sponsorship Services

QC offers two kinds of services to the sponsored children. First, it offers individual services such as regularly giving money to the sponsored during the time of sponsorship, and directly supervising the student’s education, health, social behavior and psychology. In addition, it offers in-kind contributions every now and then which help the child such as giving him\her a school bag or Eidya.  

Second, it offers a group services which include all the activities QC does for a group of sponsored children at the same time. These services and activities can be cultural, artistic, educational, sport, or entertaining.

Sponsorships differ and depend on the conditions of the orphan. There is the sponsorship of a child living with his family, a child living with a foster family, and a child living in an orphanage. Sponsoring children while living with their families comes first because QC believes in the importance of growing up around one’s family. Family is a healthy environment which supports the child educationally, psychologically, emotionally and socially. Sponsoring children by sending them to foster families comes second. Finally, if the first and second choices are not available, QC sends children to an acknowledged orphanage.

85,000 Orphans

QC is currently sponsoring more than 3,489 orphans in 8 Sudanese states. It provides them with financial and educational support, and offers them cultural and entertaining activities. As part of last year’s campaign “Rofaqa’” (Companions), QC sponsored more than 750 orphans in Sudan. Finally, QC sponsors around 85,000 orphans around the world in more than 40 countries.

As part of its periodic inspection, a delegation from Al Maha Medical visited Al Amal Hospital, in Reyhanlı, which QC had helped establish and is currently contributing to its operation. Such cooperation is considered to be the introduction of a future joint work in offering medical consultation and contributing to conducting studies, making relief plans, and suggesting solutions.

This 3-day-long visit is part of the evaluation of the work progress of the medical services offered by the hospital. Its purpose is to identify the hospital's needs for drugs, devices and medical staff. Plus, it is meant to make an annual plan to support the hospital for the year 2016.

QC's office in Turkey and Dr. Hamdi Othman, Al Amal Hospital General Director, received the delegation. Dr. Othman was happy with QC's visit and its evaluation of work progress. He also commended QC's cooperation to suggest a strategic visualization for development so as to offer better services to the Syrian patients.  

The delegation included Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Jaffali Al Na'imi, Al Maha Co. General Director; Engineer Murad bin Ahmed Yehya, Al Maha Medical CEO in Qatar; Dr. Munir Mohammed Hassan Rayyan, Al Maha Healthcare General Director in UAE; and Mr. Salah Mohammed Al Mahmoud, Marketing and External Affairs Director.

The delegation visited the hospital's different units and viewed the work progress in the divisions. They also viewed the way of storing drugs and other medical disposables, and viewed the managerial procedures.

Dr. Hamdi mentioned the hospital's achievements in the past three years. First, the hospital started receiving Syrian patients and operating critical surgeries due to complications after the patients' earlier surgeries. Then, thanks to QC support, the hospital developed to include the following clinics: internal medicine, pediatric medicine, general medicine, ophthalmology, ENT, Osteology, Neurology, Maxillofacial surgery, and General and Pulmonary Surgery.  

Al Maha Medical is a Qatari company specialized in manufacturing medical and drug products. It has a strategic goal to manufacture all of Qatar's medical needs according to International Quality Standards. The company is also interested in supporting humanitarian work. It has offered several medical aids to different parties.

Al Amal Hospital is the only hospital in the region that offers its services to Syrians coming from Syria or are refugees in Turkey. In December 2012, the hospital opened its doors after QC had greatly funded the equipment of most of the hospitals' divisions and paid for its expenses for more than a year. The total of what QC contributed to the hospital in the past 3 years is around 4,000,000 QR.

The number of beneficiaries in the year 2014-2015 alone reached 100,250 Syrians. 3,519 surgeries were conducted in the hospital, most of which were critical and specialized. The surgeries included orthopedic, neurological, maxillofacial, general and pulmonary, ophthalmic, plastic, urinary, and ENT.

Al Amal Hospital

Al Amal Border Hospital was established in the Turkish city “Reyhanlı” near the Syrian borders as one of the qualitative projects implemented by QC for the Syrian people. Al Amal Hospital represents an integrated project where free specialized operations and surgeries can be performed on the wounded Syrians. The hospital also serves to minimize the costs and burdens on charitable associations that pay for the treatment and traveling of the patients.

The establishment of the hospital was funded by QC in cooperation with the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) and the Syrian Society for (SY-DER) Humanitarian Aid and Development (SY-DER); the latter is a Syrian Charitable association that provides its services in Turkey.

The hospital contains 30 beds, 10 IC rooms, 11 examination rooms, 3 operation rooms, 2 radiography rooms, and one medical laboratory. It also contains a number of clinics of different specializations like internal medicine, pediatrics, Gynecology, and Plastic Surgery; emergency rooms; and a morgue to keep the dead bodies until received by their relatives.

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The village consists of 200 apartments, a kindergarten, 2 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, a training center, a medical clinic, a mosque, a market, two water plants and playgrounds for the children.

The village offers comprehensive services to 200 families of the orphans, and 5,000 people from the surrounding regions. It offers shelter, health, education, qualification, sports, and entertainment services.
The village’s work progress is fast. It is expected that it will be entirely established by the middle of next year.

Mohammed Hamed Al Billa, Wali River Nile in Sudan; and His Excellency Mr. Rashid bin Abdu ar-Rahman Al Na’imi, Qatar Ambassador in Sudan; were present during the inspection visit QC’s delegation paid to the village. The delegation was headed by Mr. Youssef bin Ahmed Al Kuwari whose visit was to review the work progress of Rofaqa Village for Orphans which QC had started establishing in River Nile state few months earlier at a cost of 32,000,000 QR. 

 ‘Rofaqa Village’ is considered to be a comprehensive developmental environment which works on developing the orphans’ personalities. It has multiple facilities that offer basic services in the fields of shelter, health, education, qualification, sports and entertainment. The village is situated in Ad-Damar in Nile River state; 200 families of the orphans and 5,000 people from the surrounding regions benefit from it.

Facilities of the Village

The village consists of 200 apartments (for widowed mothers and their orphaned children), a kindergarten, 2 primary schools (one for boys and one for girls), 2 secondary schools (one for boys and one for girls), a training center, a medical clinic, a mosque which can receive 800 performers of prayer, 2 water plants (2 wells with tanks to provide the village with drinking water), playgrounds and fields. The inhabitants of nearby regions are expected to benefit from the services the village offers, as well.

The work on the village started this March (2015) and is expected to be over in January 2016. Although the work on the village was supposed to be over in March 2017, it is expected to be over 9 months earlier because of the fast work progress, and the technology used in building (prefabricated roofs, for example) which QC uses for the first time.

The Ambassador’s Speech

During the inspection visit, Mr. Al Na’imi expressed his appreciation for the Sudanese people stressing the fact that the officials of the two countries work to develop their relationships. He also thanked QC for its distinguished developmental projects.

Mr. Al Kuwari, QC’s CEO, emphasized QC’s interest in establishing the village for the benefit of the orphans, “QC cares so much about the orphans. It aspires that this village will make a difference in their lives and that they will benefit from its services and facilities.”

In addition, a representative of Ad-Damar welcomed the guests and QC’s delegation and commended its efforts in implementing such project. “We are expecting that it will greatly contribute to the development of our region,” said he.

At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Al Billa thanked Qatar and its people for their support of humanitarian work around the world in general and in Sudan in particular. “QC has been of great help in contributing to the peace, stability, and development in Darfur. We thank it for standing by the side of its Muslim brothers and sisters in the poor communities in Asia and Africa. QC is always there to help in times of disasters and catastrophes,” Mr. Al Billa said. He also honored His Excellency the Ambassador of Qatar and QC.

 ‘Rofaqa Initiative’ aims at offering comprehensive care for the orphans and children around the world. It aspires to include all different fields such as social, educational, health and psychological services. Since its establishment in December 2013, 41,000 orphans have been sponsored. QC currently sponsors more than 80,000 orphans worldwide.

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• 20,000 people from 19 villages in Sudan will benefit from the water plant which is being built at a cost of 3,000,000 QR.
• The lab tests showed that the groundwater used in Saqadi can cause cancer which is why the water plant was important to stop the spread of diseases.
• During the inspection visit, it was announced that the water plant will operate in two weeks.

QC has announced that the water plant it is supervising in Nile River state in Sudan will be ready this month. 20,000 people from 19 villages will benefit from it.

The project was funded by Qatar Red Crescent, Islamic Dawah Organization and QC who worked together as partners and paid an equal share for the implementation. The project was implemented at a cost of 3,000,000 QR. QC was responsible for supervising the work progress through its office in Khartoum.

Inspection Visit

A delegation from QC; headed by Mr. Youssef bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, QC’s CEO; paid an inspection visit to Saqadi region in Nile River State where the plant is being built. Mr. Kuwari was accompanied by Mr. Mohammed Hamed Al Billa, River Nile State Wali, and Mr. Rashid bin Abdul Rahman Al Nuaimi, Qatar Ambassador in Sudan.

During the visit, Engineer Al Hadi Adam, Director of Kanana Company, spoke about the work progress of the project and that the plant will start pumping drinking water in two weeks from the visit.

For his part, Mr. Al Nuaimi expressed his happiness that the project was about to be over. “Such developmental projects reinforce the relationships between the Qatari and Sudanese peoples,” said he. In addition, Mr. Al Billa addressed the people living in Saqadi and praised Qatar’s role in relieving those in need, sponsoring orphans, and implementing projects in Sudan. “This water project,” he said, “provides clean drinking water. We thank Qatar’s prince, government, people, and charity organizations who helped build this plant.”

Reasons for the Project

The reason for this project is to contribute to providing drinking water from the Nile River to limit the spread of diseases resulting from drinking polluted water. The lab results have shown that the groundwater the people of Saqadi used to drink from is greatly troubled and has Zink which causes cancer.

The project aims at providing drinking water to 20,000 people by constructing a water plant on the River Nile with water intake, intake pumps and a transporting line to deliver the raw water from the intake to the plant. There is also a main line to transport the water from the plant to 19 villages

The plant has a capacity of 2,000 m3 with a settling basin that has a capacity of 250 m3 and a water tank that has the capacity of 100 m3 and a height of 12 m. The plant also includes a laboratory to test the water, a store for chlorination materials and buildings for the operation and security crews.

Memorandum of Understanding

In order to make sure the plant is entirely built and that it will continue to work, QC; representing itself, Qatar Red Crescent and Islamic Dawah Organization; signed a memorandum of understanding with Drinking Water and Sanitation department at the Ministry of Water and Power and River Nile Administration. According to the memorandum, Drinking Water and Sanitation Department pledged to conduct the studies, design the projects, provide a supervising engineer, to issue exemption from customs duties and project imports value added tax, and to provide the targeted villages with water tanks. As for River Nile Administration, it pledged to build a water network from the Nile River to the water plant, to build a water network from the main water plant to the targeted villages of the project, to operate the plant after the experimental operation stage, to provide the necessary technical staff and to send periodic work progress reports to the two parties.

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• Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassim Al Thani, "This project is part of our humanitarian duty towards the Mauritanian people who are like family to us."
• "Social Housing" project comprises 235 houses whose implementation cost more than 10,000,000 QR. The work on half of the houses is completed.
• The benefiting families were chosen according to certain conditions that were set to identify the neediest beneficiaries.

In a two-day field visit to Mauritania, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassim Al Thani, QC's Head of the board of Directors; and Mr. Youssef bin Ahmed Al Kuwairi, QC's CEO, handed the keys of more than 100 houses to the Mauritanian families benefiting from the 'Social Housing' project.

The beneficiaries who received the keys of the houses were from Nouakchott and R'Kiz District, in Trarza Region 200 km from the capital. The delegation was accompanied by His Excellency Mr. Abdul Rahman Ali Al Kabisi, the Qatari Ambassador of Mauritania; and Mr. Idris As-Sahil, QC's Office Director in Mauritania. The residents and, most importantly, the benefiting families were in the reception of the delegation.

A Huge Project

The project is to build 235 housing units for certain chosen Mauritanian families. So far, 110 houses have been implemented (i.e. 50% of the work is completed). The benefiting families were chosen based on the level of their poverty. Each housing unit comprises 2 rooms, a toilet and a kitchen. The houses were built using reinforced concrete and had high quality doors and windows. The total cost of the project implementation was 10,079,000 QR.

A ceremony was held so as to celebrate handing the keys of the new houses to the beneficiaries. During the event, Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassim Al Thani said, "This project is part of our humanitarian duty towards the Mauritanian people who are like family to us. The Qatari philanthropists believe that their donations are part of their duty towards their brothers and sisters. They do not want to be thanked. They just wish Mauritania more development and prosperity."

Field Visit

This project is considered the first of its kind. Delivering the keys of the houses to their new owners was one of its stages. During the field visit, his Excellency Sheikh Hamad reviewed the work progress of QC’s projects there. He also reviewed a summary of the projects that are expected to be implemented through the annual plan for 2016.

In addition, QC’s officials held a meeting while being in Nouakchott. They reviewed QC’s accomplishments in Mauritania. The total cost of projects in 2015 was 25,079,000 QR. The delegation also reviewed QC’s future plans for the country in the fields of education, health, orphans sponsorship, economic empowerment and poverty.

Plans and Projects

Since its first establishment in Mauritania, QC has implemented hundreds of projects from which so many people benefited; 2,400 orphans and poor families benefited from its sponsorship program. The total cost of the implemented projects was 25,079,000 QR. 10,000,000 QR were spent on providing 235 dignified houses for poor families; more than 1,000,000 QR were spent on 305 economic projects; more than 2,100,000 were spent on 4 centers that offer multiple services; and 2,400,000 QR were spent on the establishment of 13 mosques.

Earlier Visit

During the visit, QC's delegation met with 700 of the orphans QC sponsors there and their mothers. The families held a welcoming ceremony for the delegation. It was attended by the Qatari Ambassador of Mauritania; they expressed their gratitude for what Qatar, QC, and the Qatari philanthropists offered to these orphans in particular, and the Mauritanian people in general. 

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Water projects are a priority in Niger because 50% of its people do not have clean water
QC's offices own water-well drillers in Somalia, Niger, Burkina Faso and Sudan, which reinforces their work in the water and sanitation sectors.

In 2015, QC was able to drill 70 wells in Niger through which it provided drinking water to 35,750 families and the cattle they own at a cost of around 2,500,000 QR.

The water in Niger, where the climate is dry, is considered one of the severest problems its inhabitants suffer from. 50 % of its people do not get drinking water. Therefore, water projects are a priority for Niger and other humanitarian organizations, including QC. 

Great Needs

Mr. Mohammed Taher Al Sweibqi, QC's Office Director in Niger, said that the water projects QC implemented in Niger saved the lives of so many families. "QC's water projects provided drinking water for multiple regions where the total number of beneficiaries reached 35,750 families. The cattle the families own and the surrounding areas benefited as well," added he.

Mr. Al Sweibqi thanked the philanthropists and donors from Qatar who have been very generous with the donations they make. "Your donations help revive the cities where the wells are dug, where the rate of poverty reached 60%. The Nigerians' need for drinking water is still great, which is why more donations should be made," said he.

The drilled wells vary to include artesian aquifers and shallow wells; some wells are supplied with solar energy, others with electricity. These wells were drilled in several areas such as Zinder, Maradi, Tillabéri, and Dosso; the distances between these areas and Niamey differ and the farthest of some is 1,000 Km. Plus, 6 wells were drilled in Niamey, the Capital.  

Teachers' Institutes

Some wells are drilled to meet the needs of the schools, institutes, and the surrounding areas. Mr. Al Sweibqi participated in the official opening ceremony of a training institute for the teachers in Niamey. He was accompanied by Aïssata Issoufou Mahamadou, the First Lady, the Minister of Education and a number of officials after QC had drilled a well supplied with solar energy at the same institute.

During the opening, Niger's Minister of Education said, "The artesian aquifer project QC implemented in the institute for training teachers came as a real solution to the water problem the institute and the people surrounding it used to suffer from. I sincerely thank QC for its efforts. It helped so many people overcome such a severe problem."

Private Drillers

QC's implementation of water projects was reinforced in the beginning of 2015 when the office bought a German driller to dig artesian aquifers. The driller was of high quality and specifications. It cost 1,500,000 QR. A training course was organized for the workers and the people responsible for the driller in order to reinforce QC's efforts in Niger. The driller contributed to the increase in the number of drilled wells QC is planning to dig in the following years, and it will also contribute to the reduction of costs.

It is worth noting that in 2014, QC drilled more than 45 different types of wells; some had manual pumps, some depended on electricity and others on solar energy. The total cost of the implementation of these wells was around 2,100,000 QR. The number of beneficiaries exceeded 35,600 people. In addition, the total number of drilled wells until the end of 2014 reached 264 at a total cost of more than 9,000,000 QR from which around 318,170 people benefited.

QC's offices own water-well drillers in Somalia, Niger, Burkina Faso and Sudan which reinforces their work in the water and sanitation sectors. Many wells were drilled using these drillers to secure drinking water for the beneficiaries. 

You can donate to support such projects through the link: Click here