In my capacity of a citizen of this country and the great city of Karachi, I was filled up with pride and pleasant surprise to have witnessed a first-hand experience of young students from an undergraduate institution running serious effort in human service, with no political affiliation or strings attached. I have seen and mentored student bodies in various social activity programmes in the US, mainly during the calamities of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the earthquake in Pakistan but the extraordinary observation experienced at home is one of its kind.

After my personal observations and information from various reputed sources, I learnt that the effort is indeed genuine and has been underway for three decades, solely by undergraduate medical students of the Patient Welfare Association (PWA), a recognised and registered student body at the Dow Medical College (DMC), Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi (www.pwa-chk.org), which provides life-saving drugs, pathogen-free blood and diagnostic facilities free of cost to needy patients in Karachi.

Just as DMC students have been known for their extraordinary academic prowess, it seems they are the best in extra-curricular and philanthropic efforts too. It is amazing the way these young and brilliant students chose to take out time from a rigorous academic training and made a conspicuous difference in the lives of countless citizens of this city with their sincere devotion.

Such devotion and demonstrated excellence in human service by students of an institution anywhere in the world is completely unseen. Although medical students at US Ivy League institutions and world-leading cancer research centres have been known to participate in patient assistance programmes and other social activities, but they are rarely seen going out the extra mile. PWA volunteers at DMC walk that extra mile every day and in that set a brilliant example of undertaking a massive and challenging patient welfare programme in limited resources available to them.

The effort speaks for itself in the form of PWA programmes and their momentous impact on the lives of hundreds of patients being served at the Civil Hospital at any moment. The sheer magnitude of the challenge this organisation has undertaken and the magnitude of tangible and clear service it renders to a large mass of people is a miracle in itself.

My first experience with PWA was during extending assistance to some unfortunate patients at Civil Hospital. Later, I was fortunate to have been invited at the PWA annual audit meeting held in Karachi and attend it, where I made an analytical observation of the programmes and numbers, as well as reviewed the auditors' reports. My later experiences were accumulated during a visit to the PWA blood bank, the diagnostic lab, drug bank and other facilities at the Civil Hospital, accompanied by some delegates from India and a few other Saarc countries where we toured the facilities as well as made long queries with the student volunteers present there.

The team received a similar pleasant surprise to see the proficiency of students in the subject as well as the sincerity and conscientiousness with which they were running the facilities. The team from reputed medical institutions from our neighbour countries not only appreciated PWA's efforts and made pledges of financial support in their personal capacities but also admitted that they had never seen such a facility and student effort in their countries. I believe this is a great honor for PWA.

The general condition of wards at government hospitals in Karachi, most notably the children wards and ICU's, where children from various parts of the province are brought in life-threatened conditions, is grave and needs attention. In the developed world, children are accorded the best healthcare possible, but the condition of children wards over here seems completely opposite. I am not sure if the citizens of our city are aware of the fact that in the destitute suburbs of Karachi and in the province, pandemics like TB, anemia and dengue, are thriving at an ever-accelerating pace and taking death toll on the lives of hundreds if not thousands, of people including children.

I am myself aware of two children who lost their lives at an ICU, because of lack of good quality healthcare and indifference of the duty staff. I have also been informed that life-saving drugs and crucial medications such as antibiotics are often in shortage at wards because of scarcity of funds. There is an all-time need for snake venom antidotes which are often expensive. The need for urgent, clean and proper blood transfusion is paramount in many medical conditions, ranging from day-to-day surgeries to dengue, where mammoth amounts of properly-acquired, aptly-preserved and pathogen-free blood are required. The state of overall hygiene and healthcare at many times aggravates the illness rather than treating it, thus adding to the challenge.

It is a pleasure to see that a number of Dow alumnae have come forward and established new and modernised facilities at the Civil Hospital, including the new world-class OT (Operation Theater) Complex and Diagnostic Labs facility, which are now providing valuable services to hundreds of patients every day, but nevertheless the challenge prevails in other areas.

This is the grave and precarious situation where PWA and its blood bank, diagnostic laboratory and other facilities come to rescue and take the gauntlet. As per the PWA's Annual Report 2008, last year alone 68,207 patients were provided with high-quality blood transfusion, an average of 250 patients were given free diagnostic lab facilities per day and free drugs were provided to patients admitted in various wards bearing a hefty cost of Rs2,63,2173. As per the Treasurer's report (audited by chartered accountants and presented publicly), PWA incurred expenditure of Rs20,175,060 for the fiscal year 2008, which is expected to rise significantly this year in view of the recent wave of sky-rocketing inflation.

I often learn about philanthropists in Karachi contributing generously for various humane causes in Pakistan. I really wonder if some of them could devote a part of their contributions to PWA as well, because with PWA they can immediately and clearly see the path which their contributions follow and make the miracles in saving precious human lives and in alleviating pain. Their contributions to the PWA blood bank alone could make a great difference.

PWA is currently building a Thalassemia day care center at the Civil Hospital to combat with this deadly ailment as well as trying to procure another Cryofuge which could complement their solitary Cryofuge which served high-quality pathogen-free blood products to around 40,000 patients last year alone.

I hope that students at other medical colleges in Pakistan will take inspiration from the students at DMC in not only the standard of studies but also human service. In such an unfortunate scenario, where students at many institutions are often indulged in political or nefarious activities, PWA students are a ray of light. I sincerely applaud PWA students at DMC for their commitment and devotion to humanity at such an early age and every little step they take in saving precious human lives. I hope philanthropists and social organisations would come forward and extend moral and financial support to this organisation in its crusade at the Civil Hospital, all in the name of humanity.

I never studied at Dow nor was ever associated with it in any capacity, but after having been invited to mentor the brilliant students at DMC and observing the academic prowess and humane efforts of Dow students/alumnae, it fills me with pride that I am part of this great tradition which has been going on for more than five decades now.

The writer is associated with the Department of Biophysics & Dow Research Laboratory of Biophysics at the Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi.