Assalamu  Alaikum.

At the moment I am visiting Nigeria with the team of FIMA save vision where we have planned to conduct 4 free eye camps and we intend to perform 2 thousands eye surgeries. So far we have concluded with the initial 2 camps and started the other 2 camps today and have performed 1100+ surgeries . In this visit, 8 ophthalmologists and 2 OT assistants from Pakistan have been joined by 2 ophthalmologists from Jordan and one each from Palestine and Saudi Arabia.

At each camp, the local hosts have been very co-operative. We had good meetings with IBB (past-president of Nigeria), M Ali Indome (Opposition leader in the National Assembly of Nigeria) and  good interactions with local and international print and electronic media.

 

Alhamdulillah, FIMA is now well known among public and stake holders in Nigeria through our campaigns of prevention of blindness, daily social and daawa activity among patients and their attendants  and meetings with different officials, media and other  personalities.

 

It is my 5th visit to Nigeria and on every visit have tried to contact the central office of IMAN (Islamic Medical Assocation of Nigeria) but have not succeeded although every time we had meetings with local chapters.  During this visit I was able to contact the central president of IMAN and establish effective communication with him although he was on a visit to South Africa and we had a very fruitful meeting with central office bearer after he returned from South Africa. They showed a lot of commitment to join FIMA and are eager to work in collaboration with FIMA.

 

IMAN is a 20 years old organisation with over 10 thousands members who are doctors, pharmacists and nurses. They are working along the same line as other IMAs. I have informally invited them to the forthcoming FIMA council meeting in Lebanon and they are very much interested to be there. They will be holding their annual conference in the last days of July 2010 at OGUN state near LAGOS and they will be more than happy if some one from FIMA could attend this meeting and can provide a good start to bring closer IMAN and FIMA. I will mail you attachments about IMAN and their annual conference.

 

It is my humble suggestion to the FIMA leadership to have good communications with IMAN as I hope IMAN will be one of the active IMAs of FIMA and they can be helpful to establish more IMAs in the surrounding countries. About 3 years ago we discovered IMA in Chad  and informed FIMA but it is not still part of FIMA. In my opinion there are many countries where with small efforts more IMAs can be established.

 

May Allah accept our humble efforts . Ameen

 

Dr Intzar Hussain

FIMA Save Vision, Assistant Director

Currently in Maiduguri (NIGERIA)