Gift of health centre for Bam
BY SYED AZHARKUALA LUMPUR: When a devastating earthquake hit the historic city of Bam in Iran last December, Malaysians showed their sympathy and scooped out a lot of money from their pockets to help the victims.
The Malaysian Government immediately came out with RM3.8mil, half of which was for Mercy Malaysia’s mission to the site of the catastrophe.
Yesterday, Mercy Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood and her team of volunteers reached a milestone in their pursuit of helping the international community with the ground-breaking ceremony for a RM1mil health centre in the middle of the rubble-riddled city.
The team had left Malaysia on Friday night to attend the ceremony, which was jointly officiated by Dr Jemilah and Social Security Organisation of Iran (SSO) chairman Dr Gholamreza Suleymani at the 0.44ha plot at Abu Ali Street here. Malaysian ambassador Mazlan Muhammad was among those who witnessed the ceremony.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquakes on Dec 26 last year razed the south-eastern Iranian city, killing more than 43,000 people and displacing more than 75,000 overnight. Thousands were injured.
The new health centre, financed by the people and government of Malaysia, would cater for the city’s 130,000 people and could treat up to 200 patients a day.
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NEW BEGINNING: Dr Gholamreza and Dr Jemilah striking the pick axe to mark the ground-breaking ceremony of the health centre in Bam. |
“Mercy Malaysia and Malaysians will always help the people of Bam and other communities in crisis.”
Dr Suleymani said he was grateful that Mercy Malaysia had come forward to help the people of Bam in their hour of need.
Until Mercy Malaysia set foot on their soil, the people of Bam had never heard of Malaysia, he said.
The health centre would be completed by the end of next year and managed by SSO, which had also spent RM250,000 to buy the land.
Mercy Malaysia’s rebuilding project co-ordinator Norazam Abu Samah said they have given their commitment to help in the reconstruction of the damaged city.
“It is our aspiration to serve as many people as possible because the other health centres in Bam had either been levelled by the earthquake or had insufficient health officials to run the centres,” he said.
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