UNICEF Award Honors doctHERs For Their Efforts For Women’s Welfare

Pakistani women are never far behind from proving themselves. The only thing which hinders is the society and their dual treatment with two basic genders. However, it is also true many Pakistani women have established their names by their aptitude and strong dedication toward their goals. There are women too who want to do something helpful to unprivileged women of the country.  Amongst these women, Dr. Sara Saeed Khurrum is one who is a co-founder of doctHERs, a Pakistani project to improve women’s lives. It works in the collaboration of online technology for matching junior and trained lady doctors with rural women by the use of telemedicine.

The organization has been appreciated by both local and international welfare agencies. Recently, doctHERs has once again highlighted its prominence by winning Uncief award. Dr. Sara Saeed Khurrm received the trophy on the behalf of her organization at the ceremony of the first Global Goals Awards in New York earlier this week. The organization was one of the three winners of the same category who won the award for taking care of women’s and girls’ rights on international level.

The other winners also include Yusra Mardini who is a teenager from Syria. She saved her fellow refuges from drowning and was a swimming participant for the refugee team in Olympics 2016.  The third award in similar category went to Rebeca Gyumi, the head of Msichana Initiative for fighting against child marriage in Tanzania. The panel judging the winners for the awards comprised the 17 SDG activists who advise Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General, UN.

The Global Goals Awards is an attempt to appreciate and encourage the organizations and individuals who work for humankind, and believe in treating people with equality. It’s a support to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) who decided in to end poverty and inequality from the world by 2030.

Came into existence 1.5 years ago, doctHERs so far has nine virtual clinics running under its supervision which are aimed at facilitating women of deprived communities. Six of these are helping women in urban areas of Karachi while rests are based in Mansehra and Hafizabad. Its first clinic was established in Karachi’s Model Colony last year in May which has a small pharmacy, a laboratory and a family planning lab.  The social enterprise believes their challenges may be different but grains are the identical, and so it not only facilitates patients of rural areas but is also available for patients in urban areas.

Pakistan is a country where many female doctors after graduating from medical college or universities, don’t continue with their line of work. Getting discouraged to be full time doctor by their families or other cultural hindrances make them clamping down their potential. In addition to taking care of medical needs of unprivileged groups of society, doctHERs has been a reliable channel to create work opportunities for women alongside improving the quality of medical care in the district. By joining the social enterprise, the graduate female doctors can continue with their profession by accessing patients remotely.