by Eugenio La Mesa

I just came back from my 2 day trip to Pakistan and some of my friends asked me to write about it. I've been to Islamabad to see the amazing wonderful things that the Italian foundation Cure2Children http://www.cure2children.org/ (founded just 2 years ago by parents who lost their kids and by the visionary physician Lawrence Faulkner) is doing there.
To make a long story short, Cure2Children gets in Italy money from donors, and spends it in developing countries (so far Pakistan and Kosovo) to cure kids with cancer that is curable, but they don't have locally the money and/or the medical know how to cure it.

In Islamabad they are curing kids with Thalassemia through bone marrow transplant (trapianto di midollo osseo); in the public hospital PIMS (http://www.pims.gov.pk/) Cure2Children has just:
 

• bought all the equipment for the transplant (in just 1 month a 2 bed facility has been completed, thanks to the excellent job and coordination of Sadaf Khalid, a mother whose daughter was cured in Italy),
• hired, paid and trained 8 nurses
• hired and paid 1 data manager and 1 person that will update the content of the site, blog, etc.
• bought some computers
• given the software to manage everything remotely
• trained the Pakistan physicians

Most of the medical staff of Cure2Children that comes from Italy (physicians and nurses) do it during holidays, as volunteers. We met many people and I've been very impressed by the gratitude of everybody (families, kids, nurses, drivers, physicians, etc.). I had the feeling that they could think that this is not real: people coming from a far and rich western country, giving money and help to cure mortal diseases and training the medical staff; furthermore, nowadays Pakistan is not the safest place in the world, so this another reason why they are surprised that we are there. We also met with an important doctor of the ministry of health who said that they will do all they can to fund and support this project in order to be sustainable in the long run.

I had the evidence that:
 

• if a project is important and noble,
• the people behind it credible and with a high reputation,
• there are a few volunteers, well motivated
   

you can do amazing things and "move the mountains", even with little financial resources (and without politicians interfering in the process..)

I've been involved in this project because one of the physicians, Pietro Sodani, is a very good friend of mine since we were kids and he told me about it some months ago, and I told him that I wanted to help.
Cure2Children asked me to go there to see what they are doing. I'll be in charge, as a volunteer, of online marketing and fund raising; they obviously need money to keep doing in Pakistan and other countries the amazing things I've seen and I'll do my best to help reach this goal. I firmly believe that the rich western countries must do something for the poor developing countries, and this a concrete example of real things that can be done with little money. Furthermore, the often difficult dialogue between Muslim countries and Christian ones is easier if people cooperate for common goals, saving lives of human beings, regardless of their religion.

I just spent less then 2 days there, and 3 travelling, but I consider it a privilege and an honor to be involved in this project, to work and cooperate with many nice and wonderful people for a very noble cause.