BENGALURU: Popping pills is never easy for anyone. It is all the more difficult for those who can’t afford to buy medicines, and who end up having to endure pain associated with illness. To help such people in their hour of need, Islamic Information Centre, an NGO, has set up a medicine bank that functions on the lines of a blood bank.
Situated in Chamundi Nagar, the IIC collects leftover medicines from people and gives them to poor patients, on producing a doctor’s prescription. “We started the medicine bank in September. The response has been good. We urge people to donate their unused medicines instead of wasting them. We route these drugs to the needy,” says Zoheb Khan, president of IIC. Many people stop using medicines once they start feeling better instead of completing the full course prescribed to them. The IIC requests people to give away such medicines to benefit those who cannot afford them.
Finding the right beneficiaries is a challenge for the group that gives its spare time for the voluntary service, Zoheb says. “Before giving away the required medicines, we do a background check to eliminate fake claimants. Our idea is to reach donated medicines to the poor,” says Syed Amanullah, a trustee of the IIC.
Apart from medicines, people have donated medical equipment like wheelchairs and hospital beds after using them for their family members. Shazadi Begum had lung disease for which she required regular nebulisation. The medicine bank gave the widow a nebuliser. She visits it every time drugs are needed.“We get a lot of queries for wheelchairs and special requirement beds. Things like these have longer service lives. A patient’s relative borrowed a wheelchair from us recently, and returned it after using it for a couple of months,” Zoheb says.
A chemist, Moin Khan, also helps the IIC in what he believes is a “very useful charitable endeavour”. “We maintain an elaborate register in which we log details of medicines we procure. We note down medicine names in alphabetical order, their expiry date and current stock, which is periodically updated. We donate unsold medicines nearing expiry date to the organisation,” he says. Well aware of the damage medicines getting into wrong hands can cause, the IIC mandates prescription of a doctor to obtain any requirement. “We do not entertain verbal requests, however genuine they may seem. Nor do we give equivalent substitutes,” Zuhaib says, adding that the fastest moving drugs are ones prescribed for “lifestyle diseases”.
“People have monthly requirement of medicines for illnesses like diabetes and hypertension. We request our donors to provide medicines to check these long-term problems. Some donors have been providing us drugs to give to regular patients,” he says.The group is dedicated to the benevolent initiative and does not keep all records of the quantum of its service, for “what the right hand gives, the left hand need not know”.
Noorjaan (78) of Shampur Main Road near Dr BR Ambedkar Medical College regularly procures medicines from the IIC to treat diabetes, hypertension and pain in her legs she suffers.
“My son is a daily wage labourer. As it is, we struggle to make ends meet. On top of that is my medicine requirement, a burden we could not take. A neighbour told me about the medicine bank. When I went there, they gave me medicines for one full month. For the last three months, I have been regularly getting my medicines from IIC,” she says. A pourakarmika from Chamundi Nagar has also sought medicines from IIC. “Owing to the hard work I need to put in every day, I feel terrible pain in my joints and need medicines so as to be able to work the next day,” says Roopa (42) who also has hypertension.
Health camps
The IIC also organises health camps in places like DJ Halli, Govindpur and Tannery Road regularly. It also holds blood donation drives. “We have tied up with Dr BR Ambedkar Hospital, HBS Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Dental Hospital and Sri Sai Eye Hospital. We exhaust a lot of our medicine stock in such medical camps,” says Zoheb.
Healing touch
IIC plans to revive a free clinic it was running till recently from a premise opposite Visvesvaraya Park in HMT Layout. It plans to open one such clinic on Modi Road or Tannery Road by hiring specialist doctors.