By Lawrence Faulkner

(photo) As always,  Sadaf and Khalid and the whole team did a wonderful job in Islamabad.  The ceremony for the commemoration of the first anniversary of the ”Simone Montonoli” Unit for “bone marrow transplantation” took place at the Islamabad Club on 22 January 2010,  a beautiful complex frequented by the high society of Pakistan.
In addition to most of the children cured that have come from all over Pakistan with their families, doctors and nurses of the bone marrow transplant unit, there were also about 200 guests including the Minister for Information and Telecommunications Qamar Zaman Kaira, the member of the Standing Committee Rubina Qamikani, the Managing Director of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal,  Zamurrud Khan and the Executive Director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Dr. Ghazala Mahmood.   Also present were the Italian Ambassador Vincenzo Prati,  the Romanian Ambassador Emilian Ion and representatives of the Swiss and Czech Republic Embassies.   Sara Rezoagli, the Italian Deputy Head of Mission who arrived form Kabul a few days ago also particpated.  The Bangladesh Ambassador, unfortunately couldn’t make it.

The various authorities and the doctors took it in turns on stage,  then it was the turn of the children, who delivered a composition to Cure2Children, and in turn they received gifts from the authorities.  Zamurrud Khan gave EACH INDIVIDUAL family a check for 30,000 rupees. Many representative from the media were present and the event was broadcast live on major networks.  I am very satisfied, the results were excellent and we are very proud to have been able to announce that after just one year, we have been able to achieve important goals, that is to say that the local teams have performed a large number of transplants (23) with results comparable to those obtained Italy but with a tenth of the cost, this gives us real hope that the system can become self sufficient in a short time.

Ambassador Prati has been very supportive and is committed to help in obtaining government funding in the context of a debt conversion agreement between the Pakistani and Italian governments.  The Head of Bait-ul-Mal, is committed to sustain a good portion of the expenditure for the next 50 transplants (500,000 rupees per child) and to support us in our future initiatives in Pakistan.

It’s an enormous satisfaction both personal and professional, and it has been an honor to work with all these people eager to demonstrate that in their beautiful country a lot can be abtaind with little. Thanks to all those who have believed in Cure2Children and who have supported us, this is’ just the beginning!