Day One; Morning Session

The First Health Conference on South Asian Women was the main attraction for the day. Experts from across the country discussed various issues related to their physical, social and spiritual health. Some of the interesting topics that were covered during the sessions were:

• Challenges of Motherhood in the Western Society
• Young Professional Women: Issues and Challenges
• New Muslim American Women: Issues and Challenges

The workshops provided an interesting perspective - from people who have directly faced and resolved these issues. After the workshop, the feedback session saw some intense discussions. The question answer sessions and evaluation survey completed the session on a very positive note.

Day One: Afternoon Session

As all of us are well aware, IMI has become the first professional organization in the community to be accredited by the United Nations NGO forum. IMI's recent role in the devastating earthquake has been duly acknowledged at all the governmental and non governmental levels. The UN was, therefore, invited to the IMI conference.

IMI organized a seminar on "Disaster Management: A Tremendous Community Need". Dr. Wang - from the UN Committee on Disarmament made a vivid presentation on how the countries are spending trillions on arms while programs to promote health and overcome the disasters are suffering. Dr. Hasan Askari from the National Institute of Health gave an excellent summary of the way disasters have affected us and how we have been ill prepared and ill-equipped to tackle those.

The ray of hope he said were organizations like IMI that can not only create awareness in the community but can also devise programs and strategies to deal with such unfortunate events.

Day Two: Morning Session - the CME Conference:

Like each year, IMI organized a category I CME Accredited program for the physicians, scientists and nurses. The activity saw some of the leading physicians talk about major public health - especially with respect to the South Asian community. The topics that were covered were:

• Understanding Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy: A Balancing Act; By Dr. Veronica A. Ravnikar, M.D
• Oral Health Issues of Asian Women; by Dr. Asha Samant
• Cardiovascular Diseases in South Asians; By Dr. Rohit Arora, MD, FACE
• HIV / AIDS and South Asian Women; By Dr. Shehla Naqvi, MD
• Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome Among Asian Americans: Implications for Public Health Interventions; by Dr. Haq Nawaz, MD, MPH
  

Day Two: Afternoon Session

The afternoon session was devoted to organizational meetings of IMI. After a Banquet Lunch, Dr. Mubarak Naqvi, MD - Director Publications and Media (IMI) presented a brief overview of IMI’s past and present activities. He also outlined the future plans of IMI in various spheres of its activities.

Dr. Iftekhar Bader, MD (Director Communication & Public Relation, IMI) then presented the Get-Well Clinic project of Hyderabad, Deccan. The project is one of the best success stories of IMI and Dr. Bader was recently awarded a Humanitarian Award from the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) for managing this project with so much dedication and hard work.

The final presentation in this session was from Dr. Nasir Naqvi, MD (Director Projects and Planning, IMI). He gave a detailed presentation on IMI’s response to the tragic earthquake in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. The poignant pictures presented a tale of suffering and misery. However, the audience appreciated IMI’s response to the tragedy in terms of financial aid as well as on the ground services.

Finally, a fund raising appeal was made in which many people gave donations and many others committed a monthly contribution to IMI.

Day two: Mushai’ra

After two days of meaningful deliberations, it was time to relax in the company of some of the best Urdu poets. Many local poets treated the guests with fine Urdu poetry. The star guest was the renowned poet from Pakistan - Mr. Iftekhar Arif. His style and his words - famous throughput the world were a treat for everyone present in the audience. He continued to enthrall the audience for the next hour or so. It was an absolute joy to be in his company.

Day Two: General Body Meeting

Finally, the IMI general body met to take stock of the past activities and come up with plans for the future. It was time to reflect; to ponder and to renew the pledge of working together to alleviate the problems of health and poverty from our community.

Day Three:

The guests were taken on a sightseeing trip to New York City. A visit to the New Jersey ‘Get-Well Clinic’ was also organized. The guests also visited ‘Mehfil-e-Shah-e-Khorasan’ - an Imambargah in North New Jersey.