Written June 20, 2015
APPNA was founded as a professional organization but has morphed
into more than that, most of it unintended, reminiscent somewhat of a
rudderless ship.
Along the way, and in some areas, we have achieved a great deal.
From a few hundred members we now are in the thousands. But our potential is
huge and largely untapped.
At the risk of dating myself I will report that time was that when
you rounded at a hospital, you were pretty much the only Pakistani/Muslim on at
least five floors of the hospital. Now, rounding on even one patient has you
run into at least four Muslim doctors, half of them Pakistani.
Many mornings I awaken to National Public Radio talking about a particular
medical subject and many a time the physicians interviewed are
Pakistani-American. How do I know? Some names are unequivocally Pakistani, even
if some accents are second-generation.
Many Pakistani-American physicians are not APPNA members. While it
is great fun to see friends at the summer meeting and enjoy the mushaira, the banquet and lately
Pakistan Day celebrations, we need to change the culture of APPNA and make it
relevant and attractive to more physicians. It is estimated that there are more
than 15,000 physicians of Pakistani descent practicing in the United States;
APPNA’s membership usually stays at around 3000. So less than a third of
Pakistani-American physicians are APPNA members.
There may be efforts within APPNA to increase its membership, I
just don’t know of them nor see the same old figure of 3000 members increasing.
APPNA has a reputation of being the bhangra-Bentley-boasting club and while
that holds appeal to a certain segment of Pakistani-American physicians, it has
gotten old very quickly to very many.
Perhaps if we change APPNA’s course just a bit, we can achieve
much at many levels. If APPNA can become a professional organization
concentrating on medical issues and charitable projects here in the United
States we can get our Pakistani-American colleagues to jump on our bandwagon.
And celebrate the fraternity and commonality of purpose.
APPNA clinics all across the nation, catering to the poor and
uninsured, would create a legacy that numerous physicians would want to be a
part of. Some free clinics in the United States, run by Pakistani-American
physicians are superbly organized and with creation of a business plan, these
clinics can be templated and exported to many US cities. With the broad
spectrum of physician specialties among Pakistani-American physicians, staffing
these clinics should not be a problem. A core of primary care with specialty
representation and small pharmacies within the clinics is a totally viable
model.
APPNA homeless shelters dotting the nation are another project we
can create, sponsor and run. APPNA women’s shelters for victims of violence can
be easily planned as well. With retiring Pakistani-American physicians, APPNA
senior living communities should be actively worked on.
I am a first-generation Pakistani-American and one of those whose
hearts are stuck in Pakistan, and who cry and bleed in sync with it. We are
however not as effective in Pakistan as we are and must be here.
I have proposed the Qatra Fund before, based on the saying qatra qatra dary ban jaata hai: drops
coalesce to form a river. If all 3000 APPNA members contributed $100 per month
to APPNA we would have $3.6 million every year. Dinner at a fancy restaurant
for a family of four easily costs $100. And the wonderful foodies that we are,
we eat out more than once a month. So the $100 is entirely affordable. If not
all the membership and just half contributed $100 to the Qatra Fund, we would
have $1.8 million every year. And the millions are cumulative through the
years. And with our American projects we would attract more physician members
as well.
I have talked to many presidential candidates over the years about
this. Some don’t get it. Others want to but while you can see the wheels
turning, you hear “it’s really difficult, people don’t even want to pay annual
membership”. Which may well be true, we are, after all, a people that have
fought over mithai at annual
banquets.
We need to vote in executive committee members that want to
eliminate the status quo and then help them start and sustain the arduous, but
achievable, process of making APPNA a financial powerhouse. And a remarkable,
relevant and revered organization.
xxx
