Shaheen Group of Institutions in Bidar opened its Shaheen Covid Care Centre on Thursday (June 3). The 30-bed facility has been set up in the Group’s hostel building on Mailur Ring Road. Maulana Abdul Ghani Khan, president of the Jamiatul Ulema Bidar inaugurated the centre. The Mercy Mission from Bengaluru gifted 30 oxygen cylinders and 30 concentrators for the purpose.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer, Chairman of the Saheen Group informed that Dr. Abdul Jameel is heading the Centre with several nurses. The Centre has acquired two ambulances for bringing the patients which provide free service. The Centre in the 3-storey premises has capacity for 50 beds but so far 30 beds have been readied.
The Centre has also put in place virtual clinic for home consultation for the infected person. Around 66 doctors who formerly studied at the Shaheen institutions and are now working in various hospitals in the town after attaining MBBS degrees provide the medical advice on the phone. The doctors provide advice for the infected persons as well as those who have recovered from sickness.
The Group inaugurated its Community Kitchen early last month in Bidar to provide free, hygienic vegetarian food to the needy for lunch and dinner. The kitchen is currently supplying 2,500 meal packets containing rice, roti, curry, daal and curd to the needy, those isolated and quarantined at homes, duty staff in government hospitals, on-duty policemen, those deputed on checkposts and 60 families residing in the Raj Ground Colony. Two delivery vans carry the food to those who book the meals on helpline and 20 two-wheelers. The kitchen is fully mechanized right from cleaning of the ingredients, cutting the vegetables, steam-cooking the rice and mechanical roti maker. Around 35 personnel, mostly women, work for 16 hours a day in two batches to prepare the meals which are then packed in plastic trays with lids before being dispatched to the needy.
Mr. Prabhu Chavan, Karnataka Minister In-charge of Bidar, recently inaugurated the www.bidarcovidhelpline.com projecting the work by the Shaheen Group of Institutions.
The Shaheen Group which started with a high school nearly three decades ago today runs a string of high schools, colleges and institutes. Its founder and Chairman Mr. Abdul Qadeer is an engineer by qualification but dedicated his life for the promotion of education in a district which is farthest from the state capital Bengaluru and has not received the administration’s attention in the measure it deserved. On the other hand, it is only about 150 km from Hyderabad.
The Group’s institutions train and coach thousands of students for the various medical, engineering and other courses where admission are through competitive examinations conducted by bodies like CET, EAMCET, NEET. Hundreds of students going out of the portals of the institutions have today earned BE, MBBS and other profession degrees to enter the employment market. Training of madrassa graduates and enabling them to get admission into higher educational institution, especially the professional colleges, has been the distinctive hallmark of the Shaheen.
With the opening of the Covid Care Centre, the Group aspires to extend its services in the field of healthcare.
M A Siraj is Bengaluru based seasoned journalist who writes for a variety of newspapers including The Hindu, and news portals.