Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad OBE, a highly esteemed and senior consultant pediatrician in Britain, has urged the Pakistani government to provide vocational training to the most underprivileged children, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad has raised over £3 million for numerous health-related development projects worldwide in his capacity as CEO of Midland International Trust (MIAT). Together with his colleagues, he constructed a cutting-edge cleft hospital in Gujarat, Pakistan. ITV did a 15-minute documentary on the project since it was so well-executed and powerful. All services, including operations, are offered without charge and are mostly supported by West Midlands-based Muslim and Pakistani donors.
The Queen allocated the Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the Universities of Birmingham, Kentucky, and Wolverhampton an OBE in 2002 for his services to ethnic minority children in the Midlands. In recognition of his achievements, the Queen appointed him a deputy lieutenant in 2014. He was appointed Freeman of the Borough of Walsall that same year for his contributions to the development of the Hepatitis Vaccine, which was later made available to all countries, and for halving the mortality rate of newborns.
Originally from India, Prof. Gatrad moved to Pakistan in 2003 to work there. It was there that she met Mr. Khwaja Mohammed Aslam, a businessman and bus driver from Pakistan who was the head of Midland International Aid Trust UK (MIAT).He said “I request that the Pakistani government give vocational training to children and youth in order to empower them, especially girls, he stated. Long-term progress in Pakistan will benefit from this. This area is not being focused on at the moment. We’re ready to collaborate with Pakistan to help with the effort. In Gujarat, Pakistan, we have finished building a sizable maternity and children’s hospital named after my mother Jubaida, which is currently devoted to cleft procedures. This hospital serves as an example of what is possible. Our charitable mission is to enhance health outcomes and lessen poverty for thousands of the most marginalized people in over 20 countries in Africa and Asia through sustainable projects”.
He said “Many people now have jobs thanks to the Jubaida Gatrad hospital, which was completed in 2015.” he stated. Medical equipment has been donated by MIAT, and the hospital is drawing more and more visitors to Gujarat City. Ruth Lawson from the British High Commission witnessed the first-ever opening of the club foot center I established at this hospital in 2016 and saw the highly skilled international team I had recruited for cleft/clubfoot surgery from the UK. Twice a year, the 20-person Overseas Plastic Surgery Appeal (OPSA) team travels to Pakistan. Everyone donates their free time to initiatives where I have spearheaded the creation of an extremely precise and focused model of interventions, specifically an integrated and multi-sectoral pathway of child care that resources.
The doctor explained that through MIAT projects, he has arranged over 5000 cataract operations in Pakistan, Kashmir and Malawi built houses in Malawi in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan after the floods and supported vocational training projects in Sierra Leone, Malawi, Turkey, India, Kashmir and Pakistan.
“For the past ten years, I have been offering two ‘Gatrad Bursaries’ annually to medical professionals who travel overseas for training and teaching,” he continued. Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad visits Gujarat on a regular basis to instruct and educate nurses in the care of newborns. Over the past 15 years, he trained over 1200 nurses, some of them are currently employed in the medical field in England and Europe.
He founded World Against Single Use Plastic (WASUP) more than six years ago, taking climate change effects into account. He has battled hard to implement the Refuse, minimize, and recycle principles in order to reduce plastic pollution. On these topics, he has presented presentations to several august organizations, such as UNESCO. There are currently more than 50 nations where WASUP is present.
Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad, he is 78 years old and still incredibly passionate about improving the lives of the poor, is planning a second trip to Pakistan in the hopes of meeting government representatives and bringing attention to his charity’s campaign for vocational education for some of the most marginalized groups in society. The well-known physician is adamant that he would work for charities until the day he passes away. He declared: “I have always seen the struggles of the multitudes of underprivileged people worldwide as my own, even at a young age. I possess the bravery and determination to face obstacles head-on with ever-greater resolution rather than giving in to hopelessness and failure. I think I have made hundreds of people’s lives better and happier.
