Mission Statement

Pakistan Foundation Fighting Blindness (PFFB) has been actively participating in activities to create awareness about the Foundation besides successfully running and maintaining our existing projects within the available human, financial and infra-structural resources.

Background

Ophthalmologists agreed to form an organization

The journey of Pakistan Foundation Fighting Blindness began after a meeting of Dr. Salma Maqbool, a Medical Practitioner, and Mr. Zaheer Khalid, a Chartered Accountant, which took place sometime in late 1987. In 1974 Dr. Salma Maqbool, was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetically transmitted hereditary eye disease leading to blindness. In search of a cure for the disease Dr. Salma traveled to numerous centers of excellence including Dr. Eliot Burson at MIT Boston USA, Dr. Allen Bird at Moorefield Eye Hospital London, Hellen Holtz Eye Hospital Moscow and Dr. D. K. Gahlot at All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi. Meanwhile Mr. Zaheer Khalid was also visiting Ophthalmologists engaged in research on RP in UK and the United States.

Dr. Bashir A. Chohan a well-known Ophthalmologist working at an Islamabad Hospital was instrumental in providing the contact addresses of each other to Dr. Salma and Mr. Zaheer Khalid. Following the first encounter, several meetings between these two RP affectees and their families who were no less concerned to work for accessing information about the research work where ever it was taking place, and to develop linkages, with the umbrella organization called International Retinitis Pigmentosa Association (IRPA), which had already came into existence. Read More

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF PFFB

The objects for which the Foundation is established are:

To find a cure for hereditary transmitted Retinal degenerative disease known as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and other Retinal Degenerative Diseases in collaboration with National and International organizations and laboratories working within the framework of the “Retina International” of which PFFB is a full member and to improve the quality of life of partially sighted and blind persons in Pakistan through the provision of welfare services.Read More