Lords acclaim for postal charity heroes

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/lords-a ... eroes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

28th November 2012

Three postmen from the Home Counties North (HCN) Mail Centre were presented with a special award in the House of Lords last week for their daring fundraising for a remarkable health charity that has transformed the life chances of a desperately poor rural community in Northern Pakistan.


Nasser Hussain, Jawad Khan and Zaheer Mahmood (pictured left to right) donned parachutes, steeled their nerves and hurled themselves out of a plane in September. Their derring-do - all the more hair raising given that Nasser was forced to activate his emergency parachute - raised nearly £2,700 for the cash-strapped Alma Hospital in Hafizabad.

That facility, which has only been open for five years, offers rudimentary healthcare in a region where no medical provision previously existed - and was itself the brainchild of the daring trio's HCN colleague, Mohammed Younis - a postman driver and long-standing CWU activist (pictured below right).


Now providing free treatment for around 30,000 patients a year, the facility - which is funded entirely from voluntary donations in the UK - stemmed from Younis's single-minded determination to open a hospital in his birthplace.

Spurred into action by the harrowing experience of watching his beloved mother, Alma Bi, succumb to leukaemia without access to any medical treatment whatsoever, Younis set up the Alma Hospital Trust (AHT) in her memory in 1996.

Initially, fundraising was centred around Younis's friends and colleagues at the former Watford Mail Centre - but soon the charity soon expanded its reach far and wide - thanks in large part to a groundswell of support from CWU branches across the country.

Royal Mail has also proved spectacularly supportive over the years - and indeed Younis's former boss at Watford Mail Centre - David Cunnington (now RM's international operations director) still serves as chair of AHT's board of trustees.


11 years later - having literally devoted his life to seeing the facility built from scratch - Younis finally saw his 'impossible' dream come true when the Alma Hospital opened its doors to its first patients in 2007.

That remarkable achievement was down, in large part, to numerous cash donations over many years by thousands of CWU members from across the country - though in recent years charitable giving by the UK Asian community has become another mainstay of the hospital's finances.

Last week's reception in the House of Lords was partly a 'thank you' to all those who have contributed over the years and partly a celebration of the first five years of the Alma Hospital's existence. Above everything, however, it was a fundraiser in recognition of the fact that the failure, to date, of the Pakistani Government to contribute towards the ongoing running costs of the hospital means it permanently operates on a 'hand to mouth' basis.

"Our outgoings are higher than our income," stressed David Cunningham - adding that, while the AHT receives a large annual cash boost from the Asian community's charitable giving at Ramadam, funds from this year's festival are already running low.

"Next year's Ramadam is another eight months away - and the worry the Trustees have is, will we make it for another eight months on the relatively small income we have? We're on a knife-edge."

Those worries were at least partially alleviated by last week's House of Lords fundraiser and an associated drive to encourage sponsorship from Asian businesses presently being spearheaded by Labour peer, Lord David Evans of Watford.


Long-time Alma supporter and charity patron, Lord Tony Clarke of Hampstead (pictured with Mohammed Younis) - himself a former deputy general secretary of the UCW, commented: "It's really encouraging to have had people from all walks of life coming here to the Lords to support a charity that is essentially a postman's vision.

"What we've raised will certainly be enough to give us a couple of months breathing space - and I was particularly pleased to see on display, once again, the co-operation between the CWU and Royal Mail that has been key to everything the Alma Hospital has achieved."

Commenting specifically on the contribution of the three parachuting HCN postmen, Lord Clarke observed that their efforts had underlined the CWU connections that have been core to the Alma Hospital project from the outset.

"I have nothing but admiration for them - but it also tells me that there are people in this world prepared to do things that are really daring for the sake of other people. What can be more encouraging than that?"


The CWU's long association with the Alma Hospital now looks set to be bolstered further thanks to a pledge by Midlands Regional Secretary, Lee Baron, to work to promote the charity across the region.

"The work that Younis has done is remarkable and, to be honest, it's a complete inspiration to me," Lee said.

"My involvement began through the Birmingham branch, which for many years has put on a karaoke evening at CWU Annual Conference to raise money for the charity. They brought it to the region, said 'let's expand this and get the whole region involved' and that's precisely what we're going to do - starting by taking a DVD about the Alma Hospital to branches so they can see what a remarkable thing it is.

"Socialism isn't nationalism - it's international - and there's no better demonstration than that of the difference the Alma Hospital Trust is making in an entirely different part of the world."

To find out more about the Alma Hospital, and how you can help put this life-saving facility on a more stable financial footing, visit http://www.almatrust.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or ring Younis on 01923 215663.