In press statements on the occasion of World Health Day, falling on April 7 and commemorating the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, the secretary general pointed out that IIROSA has always considered the health services an integral part of the relief work and had always been keen on attending to the victims of natural disasters, civil wars, racial conflicts and sectarian clashes.

“IIRO is always present at the times of calamities to treat the victims and provide them with medicines along with other relief material including accommodation, foodstuffs, and clothes,” he said.

The World Health Day is this year being celebrated under the slogan “Good health adds life to years.”

Basha said that in addition to its effective presence to provide medical treatment, health care and medicines to the victims and needy people in distress, the organization is establishing, supporting and running hospitals, health centers, dispensaries and clinics in a number of developing countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

“IIRO also organizes medical caravans, establishes centers for vaccination against various epidemic diseases, and implements medical programs for the poor and needy people everywhere in the world without any disparity due to color, race or creed,” he said.

The secretary general recalled that the organization had set up a special department to undertake these assignments, provide health care, and spread health awareness in the poor and needy societies through health facilities and medical caravans that roam remote areas to examine patients and carry out vaccinations to poor people who cannot afford the costs of traveling to hospitals or health centers.

Through this department and also through cooperation with other regional and international bodies including the WHO, IIRO was able to extend much to the needy patients, the distressed injured and the poor men and women who are unable to treat themselves.

The organization conducted a number of open-heart surgeries and catheter operations on children and mature people in a number of countries including Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and Kazakhstan. The operations were conducted by IIRO's teams of voluntary consultants, specialists and surgeons in collaboration with the local doctors.

The organization also held a number of camps to conduct eye operations to treat cataract and myopia in Indonesia, Burkina Faso and other Asian and African countries.

IIRO has 37 health projects in 25 countries consisting of two hospitals, 21 dispensaries, three medical clinics, three health centers, a pharmacy and seven health programs, which provided treatment to 270,091 sick men and women.

On the local level, the organization has been extending treatment and giving medicines to a number of poor patients. During the past two months, IIRO conducted 14 out of 36 open-heart surgeries to the poor and needy patients in cooperation with a private hospital in Jeddah. It also treated 43 cases of kidney failure, eye diseases and others. It also provides medicines free of charge to the disabled.

Basha strongly lauded the efforts being exerted by the WHO in providing health care and fighting epidemic and endemic diseases, especially in the third world countries.

He recalled that IIRO signed a cooperation agreement with the WHO in March 2007 under which the two organizations carried out health projects in many countries including Morocco, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, and Egypt.