By Paul Dobbyn
ROWENA McNally visited Pakistan recently to share the expertise of Catholic Health Australia and came away inspired by the resilience, hospitality and faith of the people she met.
“I can truly say the trip to Pakistan has been one of my life’s highlights,” the CHA chair said.
“Working amongst these people were the wonderful Columban Fathers, other religious and dedicated staff in hospitals and other health facilities.
“They were helping people like 12-year-old Rattno, who survived with terrible burns after his family’s shack burnt down, killing his three siblings.
“I also really admired the courage of the local Catholic community who were people of extraordinary character facing the threat of terrorism.
“Everywhere they look is trouble – in Karachi alone there have been some 25 terrorist incidents, killing 99 people in the past year.
“It’s not even safe to process the Eucharist in the Corpus Christi celebrations from St Patrick’s Cathedral as they used to.”
Ms McNally shared these and many other reflections following her 10-day trip to Pakistan in January.
She joined Cabrini Health’s David Nowell and Australian priest Columban procurator-general Father Robert McCulloch.
The visit was at the invitation of Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, who is president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Ms McNally and her companions visited hospital, Church and government officials in the Sindh and Punjab provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
She was able to bring her expertise from other roles such as director of many organisations including St Vincent’s and Holy Spirit Health Queensland, Ergon Energy, Cerebral Palsy Australia and the North West Queensland Hospital and Health Service.
Mr Nowell brought with him considerable experience in management and hospital administration.
The trip was not without its dramas.
The group’s planned visit to St Joseph’s Hospice in Rawalpindi, which provides care for up to 60 sick, aged and disabled adults and children, was postponed due to a bombing in a nearby containment and bazaar.
Was she worried?
“In God’s hands,” she said.
She said the hospitals seen on the trip “were very much like our hospitals in the 1960s but perhaps without the investment in infrastructure and equipment that we came to have.
“Those we met with appreciated that we could speak from experience,” she said.
“We were able to say: ‘Don’t feel you’re doing this alone because we’ve all been through it.’”
The quality of services varied widely.
“Some were a reminder of the invaluable role played by religious communities in a country where there is no social security system,” Ms McNally said.
“But some of the hospitals we toured in Karachi were state of the art.
“And when we went to St Elizabeth’s Hospital in Hyderabad there was already a lot of modernisation underway.
“However, St Joseph’s Hospice in Islamabad was really struggling.
“The hospice looks after a variety of mainly disabled people.
“The work done at the hospice was very moving and impressive.
“These people have nowhere to go and the hospice relies on donations to support them.”
Another group whose plight touched the Australian visitors were those among the hundreds of thousands still homeless in the Sindh province in south-east Pakistan after the 2010-11 floods.
Hyderabad’s St Elizabeth’s Hospital, the Columban Missionary Society and other donors support some of these people.
“One of the projects we visited involved the purchase of four acres (1.6ha) of land at Jhirruk, 30 kilometres south of Hyderabad where in excess of 30 permanent two-roomed houses have been built on one acre (4047sq m) of the land,” Ms McNally said.
“Forty-four more houses are under construction and there are plans for a school.
“Those being re-settled at Jhirruk are Hindus of the Parkari Koli tribal people in south-east Pakistan who lost everything they had during the floods of 2010 and 2011.”
It was here the visitors met a number of the tribes people including Shivji and Shonti, parents of 12-year-old Rattno.
The young boy survived a disastrous fire in November 2012 when the shack his family called home burnt down, killing his three siblings aged seven to 15.
“Rattno was shockingly burnt and his limbs fused,” Ms McNally said.
“I met his parents at the hospital the day we were there.
“He was undergoing further skin graft surgery, one of several operations that has been arranged and funded by St Elizabeth’s Hospital and the St Columban’s Mission Society and its donors.
“They hope the operations will give him some movement in his limbs.”
The team of which Ms McNally was a part came away confident Australia has much to offer Pakistan’s health services.
“Policies, governance … there’s almost nothing that we can’t help with,” she said.
“Our presence also encouraged the first meeting of its kind between various Catholic facilities.”
The contact started by January’s visit will continue with a visit in August by Patras Inayat, a worker at Hyderabad’s St Elizabeth’s Hospital.
He’ll be studying palliative care in Australia and attending the CHA annual conference in August.
One long-term goal is to establish a Pakistan health association like Catholic Health Australia.
“That would be terrific,” Ms McNally said.
