Friday, February 12, 2010
News Report about SEPLAA's Awareness Drive
By Our Correspondent
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 The News |
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| Friday, February 12, 2010 |
The Seeds of Education, Policy & Legal Awareness Association has launched an awareness drive “Save a life, Save a Generation” to control cousin marriages which can pose health risks. In this regard, the NGO also officially launched a website (www.seplaa.com) during a press conference here at Lahore Press Club. Speaking on the occasion, Ammara Farooq Malik, the President of SEPLAA said, “At least 10 per cent of Pakistan’s population or one in every 10 people is a thalassemia minor carrier. At this estimated rate, the number of thalassemia cases will be doubled to over 200,000 in the next 10 years.”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=223760
Launch of the National SEPLAA Youth Council, February 2010
The Seeds of Education, Policy & Legal Awareness Association launched the National SEPLAA Youth Council at the official Launch of their website on 12th of February, 2010.
The National SEPLAA Youth Council is going to promote the causes of SEPLAA through awareness drives, holding plays and concerts which will highlight the social messages of SEPLAA and contribute their thoughts in the SEPLAA publications.
The National SEPLAA Council will have five permanent members and 15 annually elected members who will decide the agenda of the Youth Council in the National SEPLAA Youth Conference to be held in April this year.
Informal Talk on the Awareness Drive 'Save a life, save a generation'
The Seeds of Education, Policy & Legal Awareness Association held an informal talk on their recently launched Awareness Drive 'Save a life, save a generation'.
Speaking on the occasion, the President of SEPLAA Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik explained that the issue of compulsory blood screening before marriage is one of the basic preventive care that parents to be can take. The issue was elaborated by showing the guests a video clip of an eleven year old thalessemic girl, Kiran Ashfaq, who died after the failure of her bone marrow transplant. The guests were deeply moved by the memorial video of the girl and expressed their strong commitment to support the cause of SEPLAA.
During the question answer session, several key suggestions were given by SEPLAA members Jaffer Mateen and Khurram Zafar. It was suggested that camps could be set up in institutions where the samples of students could be taken as a routine matter and the students could be informed whether they were thalassemia minor carriers.
Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik explained at the launch ceremony that if two thalassemia minors carriers got married then their children could be born with thalassemia major. ‘There are over 150,000 thalassemia major cases in Pakistan
‘We propose that that every person should be tested at least once for thalassemia traits and this information can be put on their identity cards along with their blood type’, she added.
Some of the guests present expressed their reservation over the expectation of such a blood screening requirement, terming it very difficult to talk about a topic which is considered ‘shameful’ in our society. To this concern, Mrs. Farooq replied that ‘we want to create so much awareness about the importance of premarital blood screening that in a matter of a few years, this concept will become a routine matter and not a cause for ‘shame’ or a ‘social taboo’ as was the case in all the civilized countries. Italy and Greece had some of the highest number of cases of thalassemia and those countries have learnt to take care of the problem at the roots by educating their people that thalassemia can be prevented by taking the responsible action of blood testing before getting married.’
‘It is easier to donate blood but much harder to change the way people think about blood screening before getting married. But we are very hopeful and very enthusiastic to take up this challenge for the sake of our future generations’, she added.
Also present on the occasion were Mr. Hassan Awais Wyne, the Treasurer of SEPLAA, Ms. Zahra Wyne the General Secretary, Mrs. Saman Jaffer founding member and Head of Event Management at SEPLAA apart from several distinguished guests.
In the end, Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik thanked Mohsin Javed, a student volunteer who had designed the website of SEPLAA. She also thanked the other volunteers, guests and members who helped make the event a great success.
Later information leaflets about SEPLAA’s drive ‘Save a life, save a generation’ were distributed amongst the guests and the guests were then invited to have tea.
Launch of SEPLAA's website at D.H.A., Lahore Head Office
The Seeds of Education, Policy & Legal Awareness Association (SEPLAA) officially launched their website www.seplaa.com at their D.H.A. Lahore Head Office amidst several enthusiastic volunteers, members and concerned citizens.
At th launch ceremony, Mrs. Ammara Farooq Malik, the President of SEPLAA thanked Mohsin Javed, a student volunteer who had designed the website of SEPLAA.
SEPLAA Representatives will keep updating the website on a regular basis and so urged the members to keep retuning to it for updates and follow up of events.
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