By Antonio Frecentese

In these few lines, Dr. Lawrence Faulkner asked me to write, I tried to give a small insight to convey the emotions that very rarely we are able to live and which are possible only in very particular  journey’s.

In June last year, Dr. Lawrence Faulkner, whom I met years ago through mutual friends called me to outline his idea to spend part of the inheritance from an uncle pediatrician (his mentor) to start a Foundation, C2C, whose main purpose would be the support and care of children with cancer and blood diseases in developing countries. He asked if I could give him a hand to prepare the official paperwork for the first constitution of the Foundation. I accepted straight away, even if, I must say that at first I was not so clear on what the project actually was that Lawrence had in mind, I was immediately involved.

Thanks to the support of other professionals, but above all an exceptional group of parents, whose children had become angels too soon, the Foundation has taken shape, and about a year later here I am with Lawrence on an aircraft departing for Pakistan. The aim of the trip is to meet the managers of the various institutions involved in the project that Lawrence had already visited in a previous trip, and to begin planning the necessary activities to kick off the work and especially to begin to give shape to all the ideas we came up with sitting at a desk.

During the trip I wrote a lot of notes in a diary, and at the end of each day I updated them carefully. These notes I have chosen, and summarized, a few steps that I think are the most significant. I won’t talk about the agreements, or discussions of possible projects specifically with several institutions that we met with, but only a few episodes and some feelings that I experienced during different stages of this journey.

In my life I've travelled a lot, but this is the first time I made a trip to an ethnic Arab developing country.

Karachi is our first port of call. At the airport we were welcomed by Dr. Saqib Ansabère al Bismillah Taquee, and, on saying goodbye, he left us in the hands of the driver to take us to the hotel who, after waiting for two other customers,  nods for us to follow him to the car, shortly after all four of us get in.  The temperature was about 40 ° with a high humidity content, so I hoped that the journey to the hotel was not too long, also because I was in the most uncomfortable position of all: in the middle of the back seat with a big bag on my lap. In fact I was in this uncomfortable position for about half an hour, but I didn’t even notice the time as I was taken in by the new world around me. "Welcome to Pakistan, Antonio", I thought, feeling like I’d been thrown into a television report of images seen thousands of times, which I was now living for the first time.

After a short break in the hotel, we left almost at once to meet with Dr. Tahir and Dr. Saqib at Bismillah Taquee. The structure is very modest but dignified and well-organized, we were expected, so we were immediately accompanied to our friends the Pakistani doctors. Dr. Tahir was holding a meeting with his staff, greeted us and sat us down in a meeting room. While we were sipping coffee, Dr. Saqib approached us accompanied by a man about 40 years old, well dressed, with a white envelope in his left hand and the little hand of his son in his right, which in turn squeezed that of his younger brother. At his point I step aside, but listen carefully, while Dr. Faulkner thoroughly reads the contents of the white envelope. The two children are thalassemic, the father's eyes are full of resignation, those of Lawrence, are of a doctor who has to explain to a parent the difficulty of the situation. We haven been in Pakistan for only a few hours but the sense of our trip has already become much clearer.

The Fatimid Foundation is our second stop. The Foundation is the largest blood bank in Pakistan and is responsible for carrying out continuous blood transfusions needed by the children living with hemophilia and thalassemia. The Foundation carries approximately 60,000 transfusions per year and this number gives a sense of the enormity of the problem of thalassemia in Pakistan.

Just the mention of Prof. Guido Lucarelli's name, and the faces of our partners light up, we were so pleased that the name of Italy is not only associated with football and our recent conquest of the World Cup.

The head of the centre, General Moinuddin Haider, invites us to follow him in a tour of the facility, the first room we enter is the only one that I will mention.

There are about thirty children, sitting on chairs arranged like a virtual airplane, to receive their weekly dose of life, while they seem to watch the TV quietly in front of them. A virtual plane where they have to travel twice a month, every month, for a destination that perhaps, unfortunately, will never be so far away.

At the end of the visit of the departments, we came back to the manager’s office and although the a bit shaken by what we encountered, a friendly climate now also allows space for small moments of hilarity.

"A coffee, a soft drink, something to drink?"
"Coffee, thanks," replied Lawrence.
"For me just a little 'water' I reply.
"You don’t drink coffee, just water, that’s why you're so in shape!," exclaims Mr Haider, smiling.
"He looks so fit, but in reality he is just unhealthy!" Lawrence says with a hint of a smile.

'It is true! " but Lawrence it’s your fault, you're my doctor! "

A little laughter continued to warm the atmosphere, which is becoming ever more informal and open. I understand, with surprise, that our partners are very confident that we can create a group of volunteers from different social classes, which could contribute to implementing programs to support families of sick children. I am a bit taken aback, because I have to confess that I did not think that the culture of volunteering was possible in a developing country where 70% of the population lives below the poverty line. Our expectations have found another fertile ground to cultivate.  A success!   Onward!

The next day, after the successful meeting with a consultant interested in seeing our project, we headed to the Aga Khan University. I had already seen the photos of the university and the adjacent hospital, but to enter it is another emotion.  It’s beautiful! The first thought is to the poor and decent facilities visited previously that become really miserable in comparison. The university and hospital are equipped with the most modern technology, everything seems to be very "western" even the clothing of the students and doctors who we met during our visit. You feel a strong sense of detachment from the world that we left outside the walls upon entry.

I don’t want to dwell much on this meeting, I just want to point out that we were very clear in our intent and the overall Pakistanis involved in our project have to cooperate, there are structures of Series A and Series B. Our intention is to create a network between the various structures involved, which must be continuously connected and must work together daily and to interchange all information without anyone going solo, otherwise the transfer of our know-how "makes absolutely no sense. Needless to recall the story of the fish and the fishing line, but there it is, not just about treating sick children, we want to create conditions for all affected children to have access to care in their country without having to travel, spending absolutely preposterous sums of money, "in the West "to have a life expectancy.

Not only.

Our intent is to enable poor families to receive the same treatment of wealthy families, without any difference. One of the objectives of our mission, but perhaps the most important, is to lay the foundations for creating a culture of prevention through information programs for families. In all this there must be the common commitment of all the structures involved in investing part of the contributions received, in programs directed towards this.

Our return, "to base" was special, we decided to go by local "taxi".

We showed our hotel business card to a nice very thin gentleman,  in his sixties,  dark glasses and hat with a visor with Bean-Pole written on it. He asked in Urdu to get into his small yellow-black (at least that was the colour on the parts where it was still possible to glimpse the paint) with Taxi written on the roof. Lawrence is very tall and had difficulty to enter, I managed to fit in the tiny space left free in the back seat. In a flash, we realized that we were still in Pakistan, after spending several hours at Aga Khan University, perhaps I’d almost forgotten.

Early the next morning, we head out to the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Karachi. During the 40 minute journey, we had a flat tyre. Our driver was going to change it, but he realized that the jack is broken, and seeks help from cars and passers-by.   After a few attempts one finally stopped.  With the jack kindly loaned by a passer-by, we were able to replace the tyre and set off again.

We were welcomed by  Dr. Muhammad  Shamvil Ahraf who leads us straight into his office.

The structure is really very poor, but it is very decent and very well-organized. I am struck by the serene gaze of Dr. Shamvil and even more by his simple words with which he urges us to continue with belief and determination, and not to surrender to the difficulties that we will surely meet. He tells us about when he started, with a few rupees and a single room where his first patients visited him.  "After some years we now have a hospital that looks after many children with cancer," he says "donations now are are many, we didn’t lose heart and now we can work on our project. Go ahead with your project, it is beautiful and if we work with passion, there will be no difficulty so great as to stop you."  His words are full of passion, a person who believes in what he does. In a country where infant mortality is high it is hard to believe that there is someone who is dedicated to the care of children with severe illness.

The evening Dr. Saqib invited us to dinner. Unfortunately, due to a traffic jam of biblical proportions we were stuck in traffic for more than three hours and we had to renounce the invitation, but we did manage to go with him to the central market to purchase Pashminas for our e-shop for donations. As well at it being the Arab custom, we negotiated the price and after an exhausting session we were able to get a significant discount compared to the original price and also to obtain an extra two free Pashminas as a gift from our animated cloth merchant Naseer Abdullah, as his contribution to the cause of Cure2Children. I promised that in return I would publicise this on our site. Promise kept.

We leave for Lahore.

We stayed in the guesthouse of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Reserch Centre. It was founded by Pakistan’s most famous cricketer in memory of his mother died who of cancer.

During the journey from Lahore to the hospital we saw many children who plunged into an artificial canal that runs along our street. The water faucet anything but healthy, I would say very dirty, but this does not seem to be a deterrent to careless bathers who swim and joke in the unhealthy water. Just inside the walls of the hospital, once again I remain surprised at the beauty of the building, worthy of the best "Western"private hospitals, a contradictory scene from that observed just outside the gates.

The meetings with the doctors of this hospital are very constructive, they have an interest in creating a department of child onco-haematology but once again the issue on which they are a little reluctant is in collaborating with the other Pakistani structures involved. It is a fundamental aspect of our project, and our main efforts are directed to providing the understanding and the importance of creating a network of hospitals to create information tools towards the population for preventive genetic diseases.

The Lahore Children's Hospital is a government owned hospital. They are building a new wing to be devoted entirely to the department of oncohaematology pediatrics. The interest is strong but must practically start from scratch. We return to the Shaukat Khanum to the accommodation we have reserved.

In the afternoon we decided to do a tour of Lahore, we go to see the Shahi Qila (Lahore Fort). It is considered the jewel of the old city, a kind of fortress surrounded by protective walls. Our driver was a guy about 30 years old, very thin and overly reverent such that you were almost embarrassed. He does not speak a word of English, but still managed to communicate with us drawing our attention to indicate,  a luxury hotel, the different faculties of the "university centre in Lahore." After about twenty minutes travelling, the landscape around us begins to change, we are approaching the old town. The tree-lined streets are transformed into semi-paved roads where makeshift stalls have taken the place of the trees. A kind of crowded market of street vendors, an incredible chaos around us suddenly, a traffic hell. On either side of the road "workshops" are flawlessly arranged by category.

Let me explain.

Think of being in our place, sitting comfortably in the back seat of a car well air-conditioned, driven by a chauffeur with whom you can communicate by gestures only, in a semi-paved road travelled by every conceivable means of transport (thousands of strange mopeds that had emerged from every corner of the street ridden by at least three passengers, dozens of horse-drawn carts which are now reduced to a x-ray of themselves are so thin, hundreds of Piaggio Ape transformed into richo-taxi scarrying at least six passengers with a maximum of ten to twelve, carts pulled by "donkeys model Pinocchio" with a man who "Ben Hur chariot driver style” standing on the wagon (with a whip in his hand a long bamboo pole, to convince" Pinocchio "not to stop)" surfing "in the midst of a hellish chaos of traffic, quiet as it was in the sea pushed upwind by the mistral, all kinds of cars whizzing like 24 hours of Le Mans) flanked by a number of salesmen of the same kind as the ancient, but more chaotic, street traders of the Middle Ages. In fact, after a long series of clothing stores, we find: a set of artisan shops all next to each other with bamboo ladders of different heights newly built and supported, set out neatly on the facade of an open roofed shop, and a series of marble craftmen ready to work on tombstone epitaphs on marble slabs of various sizes, everything intermingled carts filled with every kind of fruit.

This time it seems like we’re in a movie, our driver juggles well in this incredible chaos, he too is accustomed to the horn like all the others in circulation ... the horn! The accessory most used ... it is incredible, everyone sounds the horn continuously as if to say "I moved to pass", when commenting on "what a nice car!", other times as if to warn "pay attention  I'm coming at full speed!" and maybe even to greet a friend who is crossing at that time (this hypothesis is unlikely since in the sea of people moving it is difficult to spot someone!).

After about another 20 minutes travelling in this human tide, we arrive in front of the Shahi Qila. We get out and after a lot of insistence convince our driver friend Muhallah Hayat, to come with us. At the entrance a "tourist guide" comes over to us and offers us his help for $20 (1,200 rupees, almost a fortune), we thank him but we replied that we have our friend who helps us.  The guide does not give in and follows us speaking in Urdu with our friend Muhallah that in the meantime bought us two entrance tickets (200 rupees). We convince him to come with us, he asks for a ticket for a "local" that costs only 10 rupees, and with lot of effort we manage to pay for him. The guide does not leave us alone and continues to offer his guidance at a price lower and lower as we approach the entrance of the mausoleum. At the gate he launches his last offer: 300 rupees!  We ignore him and we enter with our Pakistani friend. Muhallah tries to guide us by explaining to us with gestures the inside of the monument, which I could compare to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain even if, unlike this one, everything now is in completely neglected and decayed. Pity!

The atmosphere is really very special, in front of a beautiful large mosque that dominates the old city.

The day is almost over and after having made stops at the street food of Lahore, a long road only made up of Pakistani restaurants, we decided to go get something to eat before returning to our accommodation. At our insistence our invitation to Muhallah to keep us company for dinner are in vain, he decided to wait in the car, so we opt for a big tip.

Islamabad. Last leg of our journey.

The visit to the Shifa International Hospital is very interesting, a private hospital of an excellent level. Dr. Kamran Rashid, who specialized in the United States is very interested in the project as well as those responsible for the structure. Excellent opportunities for collaboration.

AFBMTC. Military hospital in Islamabad. Here we also find excellent opportunities for collaboration, the interest is total. Our military friends "ordered" us to dine with them. They took us to an exclusive restaurant / residence in the mountains, after having made a stop not too far away at the Army Golf Club. An Aladdin’s style fairytale building, again in a different world than outside the city walls, another big contradiction that makes us think.

Meeting with Khalid and his wife Sadaf.

Khalid is our contact in Pakistan, an exquisite person who has created the first network of contacts in Pakistan, giving us the opportunity to meet all the people and  facilities we visited.

Lawrence has successfully treated one of his three daughters suffering from thalassemia.

He tells me his story, his esteem for Lawrence, but especially of his odyssey to come to Italy to care for their child. He told me that when he came to Italy he had to give up his job and leave with his wife and child for a time in Florence. They spent nearly a year in Italy. Khalid every day, was on the train roundtrip Florence / Rome to work temporarily in UNICEF where the Pakistani government had found him a job. Every morning for a year, in a foreign country thousands of miles from his country, his other two daughters and his loved ones. The child had recovered, his friendship with Lawrence has become ever greater, his desire to offer opportunities to Pakistani children to find the care they need in the structures of their own country has become his dream.

Cure2Children was born also thanks to the dream of Khalid  and that has become the dream of all those who collaborate in our Foundation, and with our Foundation. The experience of this trip enabled us to see the real possibilities of our project are higher, our awareness of the success of the project is growing. I repeat a phrase of Professor Guido Lucarelli, I had the good fortune to know, "our goal must be to treat, but above all to transfer our know how in developing countries so that they become increasingly aware of their potential . The skills are there, we have well verified this in the course of our journey, our task is to support local structures in a learning process that makes them soon self-sufficient, and to create a culture of prevention information and that can re-dimension the phenomenon of thalassemia.

With modern communication systems, the ability to have daily contact with the other end of the world is so simple, as well as the ability to share routes and outcomes of care of them.

Thanks Khalid and thanks Lawrence for  having giving me this experience.

In some passages of my story, I hope to not have used too much humour or too much playful language and I hope, at the same time, in having been able to communicate the sense of our journey and the desire to want to help make Khalid’s dream a beautiful reality.

Thank you.

Trip to Pakistan of 10 - June 22, 2007