KARACHI: School students, who recently participated in a poster contest, were honoured for their efforts at a ceremony held on Wednesday at the ZVMG Rangoonwala Community Centre.

Students from 45 schools had sent over 1,000 poster entries for the contest titled Prevention from Burn Injury and First Aid organised by Friends of Burns Centre (FoBC).

Speaking at the programme, Dr Ehmer-Al-Ibran, in charge Burns Centre at Dr Ruth K.M. Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, said a comprehensive awareness drive had been launched in collaboration with FoBC and Essa Laboratories to educate children on prevention of burn injuries.

“Burns centres are badly needed in each division, though there has been a decline in death by burn injuries,” he said, adding injuries from fire, electricity, chemicals and hot water were common.

“Children often report with hot water and tea burns at our facility. Pouring cold water on chemical and fire burns for a few minutes soon after the incident is vital to save lives. The general public should adopt preventive measures to avoid burn-related injuries,” he said.

It was also pointed out during the programme that injury and death from burns could drastically be reduced if the health department completed the construction of five burns centres in different cities of Sindh.

Seasoned writer Anwar Maqsood, the chief guest, greatly appreciated children’s works and said such initiatives would help create the much-needed awareness among children.

Abdullah Feroz representing FoBC highlighted services of the centre and said the facility was saving lives by providing the best possible treatment free of cost.

Alizay Aijaz, Abdullah Fahim and Wajid Hussain of the Sun Academy got the first, second and third positions respectively in the junior category.

Muniza Nadeem of H.B. Malik Public School, Maham Rizwan of Aitchison Model School and Marium Syed of The Educators (Gulshan campus) were declared first, second and third in the senior category.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2020