Karachi’s cost-free clinic

"What will we do with our funds if we do not look after our Zoroastrians when they are alive and what will we do with our funds when there are no Zoroastrians left in Karachi to be looked after?” enquired Byram Avari, chairman of the Karachi Parsi Anjuman Trust Fund (KPATF), in his communiqué dated April 7, 2016. He was concerned that the aging, dwindling Zoroastrian community in Karachi had further declined from 1,350 as shown in the 2015 edition of the A&T Directory. He knew that in recent times two families have sent their passports for stamping before getting immigration to Canada, another seven families have been approved by Canada and their documentation is underway, and some more families are getting their paperwork together.
On behalf of the KPATF trustees he conveyed that the facilities of the Free Parsi Clinic will now be available to all Parsi residents of Karachi, "irrespective of their financial standing as it would be impossible to differentiate between the poor, middle class and rich if a doctor at the Parsi Clinic has to make such a decision… We leave it to the conscience of the well-to-do not to utilize this free facility.”

Byram Avari

Free Parsi Clinic at Anjuman Bagh

When the Clinic was started in July 2015 on a ground floor flat at Anjuman Bagh, offering free consultation, medicines, laboratory tests, radiology, surgery, ophthalmic treatment, hospitalization and orthodontics for children, it was initially intended for use by residents of Anjuman Bagh and Rustom Chawl. Subsequently residents of Gari Khata, Khorshedbai Chawl, Cowasjee Foundation, Collector Bagh, Katrak Hall, Jamshed Bagh and Parsi Colony were included. Now even those staying in the Minwalla Colony and the Dinshaw Avari Colony, situated near the Towers of Silence, can have their medical needs attended to by the "four stalwarts” Drs Beroze Mistry, Jasmine Ferozepurwalla, Natasha Billia and Bakhtaver Rabadi, with the recently inducted part-time medico Dr Panjwani. "Since the medical costs are substantial and increasing by 25% annually, I approached various trusts to join this initiative of KPATF and am honored and delighted” that support came from the Hommie and Jamshed Nusserwanjee Charitable Trust, the Jehangir Rajkotwalla Baugh Trust, and the Feroze and Shernaz Bhandara Charitable Trust, conveyed Avari.
He was disappointed though with some beneficiaries like one "old gentleman living in Rustom Bagh who came to the Clinic and abused and raised hell with the voluntary Parsi lady doctor on duty insisting that whatever he demanded must be prescribed.” In another instance, "a well-known, aggressive woman living in Anjuman Bagh…started screaming…demanding medication for (another patient) before her assigned visit to the Clinic.”
Whilst debarring these two from availing of any further facilities at the Clinic, Avari asserted, "The KPATF will not allow its resources and the resources of the other trusts who have reposed confidence in KPATF’s ability to disburse correctly, to be wasted. It is therefore necessary for us to put our foot down to regulate the decorum, protect our doctors who are doing voluntary service and support our doctors to follow our instructions without being abused, bulldozed or hindered in their work…We as a community should be extremely grateful to all the trust funds for the financial support being extended for various problems and medical needs of our Karachi community.”