KARACHI, March 14: Another successful Patients’ Welfare Association bake sale took place here on Wednesday at the Civil Hospital Karachi. The PWA, run entirely by students on a voluntary basis, raised Rs1.7 million this year, beating its 2011 sales record of Rs1.4 million.

The bake sale has been taking place every year since the foundation of the PWA in 1979 and is organised by first-year students of the Dow University of Health Sciences with the assistance of their seniors.

The PWA is a non-profit, apolitical organisation, trying to fill the gap created by the lack of proper funding of the government-run hospital.

The PWA premises are cleaner and better equipped than the rest of the hospital and, according to the association, it has the largest blood bank in Karachi with 250 blood bags dispatched daily.

“Most of the costs related to blood donations are due to screening,” says a PWA member. “Buying a blood bag from a blood bank costs about Rs1,000. Since we manage the blood bank ourselves, the cost of a blood bag is Rs400.”

A year ago the PWA also opened its own thalassaemia daycare centre.

The bake sale is not the only means by which the PWA raises money. The students put a great deal of effort into roadside campaigns, Zakat campaigns, and setting up a stall at the Expo Centre.

“We’re still too inexperienced to be fully useful at the hospital,” says the PWA member. “So this is where we feel like we’re really contributing.”