St. Joseph's Hospice is a Shelter for Helpless People.

Introduction

For almost 50 years, St. Joseph’s Hospice has been giving new hope and a new life to children and adults with no other options. St. Joseph’s Hospice has provided free quality medical care and medicines, caring and skilled nurses, rehabilitation and physical therapy, and a healthy diet, in a clean, park like setting--to the stroke victim who can’t function, the mother who is paralyzed from an accident or the burned child needing specialized care during reconstructive surgery. Our out-patient clinic serves an average of 100 patients a day at a token fee.

Who we are

St. Joseph’s Hospice is a non-profit organization, chartered by the Pakistan government and run by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM). Founded in the 1960s, we have grown into a 60 bed residential facility plus outpatient clinic. St. Joseph’s Hospice is certified by the Islamabad Medical and Dental College as a teaching facility.

History of St. Joseph’s Hospice

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) lead this small, dedicated and close knit community which continues the inspiration of Father O'Leary, a Catholic priest and missionary. In 1962, Fr. O’Leary realized the need for a hospice when he attended a dying woman near the railway track. By 1964 he and FMM Sister Dolores, from Spain, had established our pioneering Rawalpindi home and registered it as a non-profit organization under the Pakistan Donor Welfare Agencies Ordinance.

The main building, built in 1964 on Church land, was fully funded by MISEREOR, the German Catholic Bishops’ Organisation for Development Cooperation. The separate convent building was originally a community hall for the Irish Fusilers who used the church. In the 1970s the nursery block was built to care for children abandoned to the Hospice. More recent construction has included converting an existing dorm room to house school age boys.

Our work

St. Joseph’s residential section provides free medical care and rehabilitation services to destitute handicapped and ill children, teens and adults with a variety of physical disabilities and conditions. The out-patient department, which averages 100 patients a day, provides clinic services and medicines to neighborhood families for a token fee.

What we do

St. Josephs provides free care, treatment, rehabilitation and security for our destitute residential patients. Handicapped by various forms of disabling paralysis, chronically ill, or suffering from senile dementia, they are often rejected by their families and refused by other hospitals. At St. Joseph’s they become a community and support and encourage each other. The children receive an education, and the able adults can be taught skills to earn extra money. In this supportive new life they discover hope.

With its own doctors, laboratory, pharmacy, physical therapy, x-ray, and other treatment support facilities, St. Joseph’s is self-contained for most basic needs.

Leadership & staff

Our dedicated Sisters and staff work tirelessly to provide compassionate care and efficient administrative services. The volunteer Committee of Management gives support on financial and administrative matters, and helps raise funds and awareness. All together these people are the loving heart of St. Joseph’s Hospice.

Thanks to the talents, faith and ingenuity of our dedicated staff, highly capable Committee of Management and volunteers, we are able to fulfill our aim of providing free medical care to the destitute.

Staff Fills Diverse Needs

The overall day-to-day responsibility for St. Joseph’s Hospice is in the hands of the Franciscan Nuns of Mary with Sr. Margaret Walsh as Chief Administrator. Other Sisters have responsibility for physiotherapy, pharmacy, the out-patient department, and supervision of the support services staff.

It takes good people with a range of talents and skills to care for our patients and their diverse needs and conditions. Our medical team includes two doctors, two staff nurses, 22 male and female nursing aides, two physiotherapists, and laboratory workers. The support services staff consists of 25 employees who handle the office, food service, laundry, grounds and maintenance, tutoring, and other necessary positions. The total staff positions required to support our efforts exceed 80.

In-house Training

In a country where trained medical help is almost non-existent it becomes critically essential to train new staff members or upgrade skills through in-house training, This training for our nurse aides and volunteer staff is a valuable part of the busy working week. St. Joseph’s has a special classroom dedicated to this training and volunteer trainers who offer staff training on a regular basis.

Volunteers and Committee of Management

Our wonderful, kind hearted volunteers serve in many capacities--working with patients on such projects as knitting and tutoring to training the nursing staff. Their generous gift of love and time provides strength and enriches the lives of the patients immeasurably.

And finally, our volunteer Committee of Management provides administrative guidance, fundraising expertise, and variety of other functions. The Committee consists of nine members.

Our facilities

Situated in a quiet garden setting, St. Joseph’s has 60 beds with wards for children, women and men, a fully equipped lab, x-ray department, pharmacy and professionally run physical therapy department. The complex also contains the outpatient clinic, and classrooms for staff training and children unable to attend school. The kitchen serves 6000 meals a month. More

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Free Wheelchair For The People With Disability

Mission

The American Wheelchair Mission is a non-profit organization with a goal to deliver brand new, free wheelchairs and mobility aids to physically disabled children, teens and adults throughout the world who are without mobility or the means to acquire a wheelchair. With a strong focus on the needs of the Americas, the American Wheelchair Mission will continue to change the lives of entire families with the gifts of hope, dignity, freedom and independence.

Impact

The delivery of a wheelchair to a person without mobility improves the quality of life for the entire family. Children can go to school, adults can go to work to provide for their families and the elderly can get out of a bed they may have stayed in for years at a time. We estimate that each wheelchair we deliver impacts an average of 10 lives in a positive way.

Need

It is estimated that more than 100 million people throughout the world are in need of a wheelchair but cannot afford one. These people cannot be helped by canes, crutches, walkers or prosthetics. A wheelchair is their only hope for mobility.

On average, developing countries around the world have about three percent (3%) of their population physically disabled and unable to afford a wheelchair. In the 60 or so countries with civil unrest, landmine and unexploded ordnance problems the percentage of physically disabled can rise as high as Angola’s twenty percent (20%). Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and Sierra Leone are not far behind. Colombia is the only country in the western hemisphere with landmines actively being planted by anti-government rebels, and has a growing problem. The reasons for physical disability include war, disease, accidents, lack of health care, aging and others.

The delivery of wheelchairs to physically disabled people allows children to go to school, adults to go to work and provide for their families and the elderly to get out of a bed they may have stayed in for years at a time. But a wheelchair does not only change the life of the recipient. We estimate an average of ten lives are improved by the delivery of each wheelchair. Families can attend worship services and social gatherings together; people who have crawled on the floor or ridden on a skateboard can now look family in the eye for the first time and feel dignity. The prayers of entire families are answered with the gift of a wheelchair.

Process

The brand new wheelchairs we deliver would sell for $500 in a medical supply store, but we purchase them by sea containers of 100 to 280 wheelchairs, deliver them directly to the country of destination and can do this for an average of only $150 per wheelchair. Please see the Our Program section of this website for more details. More

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Special Children’s Educational Institute (SCEI) in Karachi

Special Children’s Educational Institute (SCEI) is Located in Karachi and provides a platform for the optimal development of children and young adults with intellectual and physical disabilities from all socio-economic sectors of Pakistan. It is very nice place, from where special people get their education and become useful member of the society. 

SCEI was founded to educate, nurture and care for children and youth with the goal of assisting each individual in achieving his or her maximum potential. The institute aims to facilitate independence and improve quality of life for its students in a safe and secure environment so they can lead stimulating lives.

MISSION

At SCEI we aim to become a nationally recognized organization that improves the lives of individuals with special needs by providing specialized education and training. We believe in being the catalyst for change in social awareness, attitudes, acceptance and integration of these individuals. More

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Prevent Children from The Polio

Polio is very dangerous disease and there is no cure for polio, only treatment to alleviate the

symptoms. Heat and physical therapy is used to stimulate the muscles and antispasmodic drugs are given to relax the muscles. While this can improve mobility, it cannot reverse permanent polio paralysis. Polio can be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life. Although improved public sanitation and careful personal hygiene may help reduce the spread of polio, the most effective way to prevent the disease is with polio vaccine. IPV can cause an allergic reaction in some people. Because the vaccine contains trace amounts of the antibiotics streptomycin, polymeric B and neomycin, it shouldn't be given to anyone who's had a reaction to these medications. Signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction usually occur within minutes to a few hours after the shot and may include Difficulty breathing, Weakness, Hoarseness or wheezing, rapid heart rate, Hives, Dizziness, Unusual paleness and Swelling of the throat. If you or your child experiences an allergic reaction after any shot, get medical help immediately. It is a serious disease affecting a person’s brain and spinal cord. Infection with the poliovirus can lead to a life-threatening muscular paralysis of the body. In the last 20 years the number of polio cases around the world has reduced. This is largely due to global vaccination programs that aim to immunize people against the poliovirus. Countries such as North and South America, the western Pacific region including Australia, and Europe are now all polio free, however cases are still being reported in some parts of Asia and Africa. Polio is an illness that causes sudden weakness/lameness of the limbs and sometimes death in children. The polio virus can be passed easily from one person to another. The polio virus affects mostly children below 5 years. Polio can be prevented by immunization with polio drops at birth, 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, 18 months and 5 years of age. There is currently no cure for post-polio syndrome, so treatment focuses on helping you manage your symptoms and improving your quality of life. People with PPS are often treated by a team of different healthcare professionals working together. This is known as a multidisciplinary team. An effective way to manage fatigue and pain is a type of physical therapy known as pacing. This involves recognizing when you become exhausted doing certain activities and learning to stop and rest before you reach that point again. Activities are therefore broken up into smaller ones with rests in between. By stopping before you are tired, you may be able to accomplish more activities over the space of a day than if you tried to do things without taking a break. While pain and fatigue can often be reduced using pacing, various medications to help relieve pain are available if you need them. These include over-the-counter painkillers. Over the counter, OTC, remedies should not be used on a long-term basis without discussion with your GP. This is because some of them can cause complications, such as stomach ulcers, if taken over long periods. In a pilot study of post polio syndrome ,PPS, patients, a multidisciplinary rehabilitation approach involving tailored physiotherapy exercises has shown to have significant benefit on muscle endurance, exertion, and depression levels for up to 6 months. The basic management principles for individuals with PPS include energy conservation and pacing one's activities. Although basic, these activity modifications may be difficult for some patients to accept. Psychological interventions, such as cognitive behavior therapy, may also be initiated to help reduce fatigue. Certain psychological issues have been studied in relation to post polio syndrome. Most studies reveal that depression is not related to post polio syndrome symptommatology or to the level of residual physical disability. Type A behavior is significantly higher in the polio population than in a control population. Overall, normal psychological and emotional functioning has been found in patients with post polio syndrome compared with controls. Before looking at a scooter or power chair, and other mobility devices, such as canes, walkers and crutches, should be considered for effectiveness first. Choosing between a scooter and power chair requires special considerations. When I choose between a scooter vs. a power chair, you have to look at the posture of the individual and if they're able to get out of it for long periods of time or not. Because if someone's able to get up and move around let's say, on Lofstrand crutches or whatever a scooter might be fine. But if someone is unable to be ambulatory, many times a power chair has better posture for full time positioning and greater options.

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Types of Disability

A disability may be generally defined as a condition which may restrict a person's mental, sensory, or mobility functions to undertake or perform a task in the same way as a person who does not have a disability. It does not mean that a person with a disability is unable to perform all the important requirements of his life and a job and exceed the expectations of his employer. People with a disability come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, sex and cultures - just as we all do. The only thing that separates a person with a disability is that, for one reason or another, they are unable to do certain things in the same way as the mainstream of society. They may require some form of adaptation or alteration to assist them to overcome the effect of their disability. Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus, disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives. An individual may also qualify as disabled if they have had an impairment in the past or is seen as disabled based on a personal or group standard or normal. Such impairments may include physical, sensory, and cognitive or developmental disabilities. Mental disorders, also known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability, and various types of chronic disease may also qualify as disabilities.  A variety of physical disabilities result from congenital conditions, accidents, or progressive neuromuscular diseases. These disabilities may include conditions such as spinal cord injury, paraplegia or quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, amputation, muscular dystrophy, cardiac conditions, cystic fibrosis, paralysis, polio/post polio, and stroke.  Learning disabilities are neurologically based and may interfere with the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical skills. They affect the manner in which individuals with average or above average intellectual abilities process and/or express information. Speech and language disabilities may result from hearing loss, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, and/or physical conditions. There may be a range of difficulties from problems with articulation or voice strength to complete absence of voice. Totally blind students learn via Braille or other non visual media. Legally blind indicates that a student has less than 20/200 vision in the more functional eye or a very limited field of vision, 20 degrees at its widest point. Low vision refers to a severe vision loss in distance and near vision. Brain injury may occur in many ways. Traumatic brain injury typically results from accidents; however, insufficient oxygen, stroke, poisoning, or infection may also cause brain injury. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing require different accommodations depending on several factors, including the degree of hearing loss, the age of onset, and the type of language or communication system they use. People with disabilities are among the most marginalized groups in the world. People with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education and less economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.

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