Americans of all backgrounds are responding to the call for volunteers to lend their time and skills to help the Haitian people in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake. Among those who are responding are dedicated Muslim-American doctors experienced in providing medical relief during disasters.
“We are commanded by our Creator to help a fellow man in need,” Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) Relief Committee chair Dr. Ismail Mehr told America.gov. “It’s very clear in the Quran that to save one human life is as if you saved all of humanity.”
A team of doctors from the Illinois-based IMANA traveled to Haiti shortly after the earthquake devastated the country.
“I am pleased to inform the membership that we have our second team leaving for Haiti this weekend, Inshallah,” IMANA president Dr. Khalique Zahir said in a statement on the association’s Web site. “Our first team of physicians is on the ground providing much-needed care and working alongside other organizations.”
IMANA has a long history of relief partnerships, including working with the U.S. government during the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. In Haiti, IMANA is partnering with the U.S.-based Islamic Relief USA, the Zakat Foundation and the Islamic Society of North America, as well as secular relief organizations active in Haiti such as NYC Medics and Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS).
“As a matter of principle, we collaborate with any organization, regardless of faith or nationality, that has the same goals as us,” Mehr said. “There is sort of a brotherhood that exists among relief organizations.”
For the Haitian disaster, CDRS is providing logistical support for IMANA doctors. IMANA doctors first worked with CDRS in Pakistan in 2005 after the earthquake there killed some 73,000 people.
“CDRS is the glue that is missing in a disaster that binds all the big pieces together,” Karamally said of the group’s logistics support for disaster relief. “We’ve helped deploy close to 100 doctors so far to Haiti, and I think that 60 to 70 percent of them are Muslim doctors.”
IMANA doctors are no strangers to providing medical assistance in times of disaster: they treated patients in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami and treated the wounded during the 2009 conflict in Gaza. Currently, IMANA doctors are seeing patients in Haiti at an emergency triage hospital set up outside Port-au-Prince.
Shortly after the quake, IMANA sent a team of five doctors to Haiti. But since more doctors were needed and their pool of volunteers increased, IMANA is now sending doctors in teams of 10. One of those doctors scheduled to travel with IMANA on February 6 is Dr. Imran Qureshi.
“IMANA may, with the larger number of volunteers, try to staff more hospitals in eastern Haiti, which is less damaged by the earthquake,” Qureshi told America.gov. “Because of the huge number of patients, these hospitals need more doctors.”
Not all doctors who are members of IMANA are Muslim. According to Qureshi, while some 80 to 90 percent of their membership is Muslim, doctors of other faiths are also members.
“I think on my team going to Haiti there are two non-Muslim American doctors,” Qureshi said.
By america.gov
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