MINGORA: Despite suffering from chronic renal failure, the 13-year-old Kainat is determined to realise her dream of becoming a doctor.

Hailing from Kanju village in Kabal tehsil, the fifth grader is a bright student. She has been suffering from the disease since she was six-month-old, and undergoes regular dialysis to stay alive.

“I don’t know what disease I am suffering from but it is very painful, so painful that I cannot bear it sometimes. When I feel acute pain I perform the dialysis to subside the pain temporarily,” she told Dawn.

Kainat is a bright student in her class and always secures a position in the top three. For her, getting education is her passion and becoming a doctor is her dream.

She cannot take part in games. “During half time I don’t go out of class with other classmates as I cannot play and fear to be pushed by some student,” she said.

“Come what may, I will get education and become a doctor to do free treatment of poor and helpless people like us,” she said with determination in her voice.

Her father, Nizamuddin, sells second-hand shoes in his village. He has three more children, but being the eldest and intelligent, Kainat is dearest to him.

“I have done whatever I can to provide her better treatment. She remained hospitalised in the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) for five years where she underwent about 27 surgeries but her condition didn’t improve.

Since then, Nizmauddin has been selling used shoes to earn a living for his family and to afford her ailing daughter’s treatment. He said he had to spend Rs20,000 monthly on her dialysis.

He says being with his child in hospital for years he and his wife have learnt to perform her dialysis. “Kayinat also has learnt to do it for herself.”

He said Kayinat’s treatment was possible in Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in India, but he could not afford to go there. “I appeal to the government of Pakistan and education activist Malala Yousafzai to arrange for her treatment either in India or anywhere else.”

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2016