A conservation charity in northern Tanzania is working to plant 50 million trees in a pioneering reforestation campaign to preserve diverse ecosystems of Mount Kilimanjaro which are increasingly threatened by illegal activities and wildfires.

Africa’s highest peak has experienced rapid deforestation which triggered higher temperatures that have caused its iconic snow cap to melt at an alarming rate.

Deforestation around Kilimanjaro is fueled by human activities including illegal logging, farming, and charcoal making as residents try to meet growing energy needs.

Restoring old glory

Dubbed “Trees 4 Kili,” the initiative placed a long-term goal to plant 50 million trees to restore shrinking vegetation and lower temperatures which is responsible for melting glaciers.

Jeremy Lowney, the founding director of the charity said the campaign is intended to educate and empower the local community to stop deforestation and overgrazing activities, which have caused a decline in rainfall, increased temperatures and subsequent glacial decline.

The Trees 4 Kili project was launched in 2018 to counter environmental degradation in Kilimanjaro by mobilizing residents to plant trees and restore fading glory.

Under the initiative, the charity is also working to raise community awareness on the value of trees and sustainable forest protection.

Climate impact

Kilimanjaro, the world’s tallest free-standing mountain at 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level is vulnerable to climate change partly caused by environmental destruction.

Thomas Munuo, the project coordinator said the tree-planting drive is to reverse rising rates of desertification and provide invaluable benefits to communities and the environment.

“We are happy to work with the community and local authorities to find a creative solution to this problem,” he said.

Munuo said more than 6 million trees have already been planted under the initiative seeking to restore the fading glory.

Random tree felling in Kilimanjaro has disturbed rainfall patterns and disheartened farmers who experience long spells of droughts, according to Munuo.

Campaigners say tree planting potentially reduces flood risks, slows the flow of water and acts as a buffer to agricultural pollution, and purifies water.

As one of Africa’s best tourist destinations, the Kilimanjaro area is known for its breath-taking attractions, including stunning landscapes dotted with wildlife, waterfalls, and rich cultural heritage.

Tanzania has 33 million hectares of forests and woodland but the country has been losing more than 400,000 hectares of forest annually for two decades, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2020 Global Forests Resources Assessment.

The charity said the initiative is a step in the right direction in coping with climate change and wildfire losses caused by higher temperatures.

Rekindling hope

The worsening effects of climate change are already visible in Kilimanjaro due to deforestation and unsustainable farming, said the residents.

“When I was growing up in the 1970s this area was greener and rivers were flowing throughout the year, but the situation is different today,” said Salome Chuwa, a resident of Marangu.

Chuwa recalls a raging fire that gutted the mountain in October, destroying natural growth while causing huge plumes of smoke.

“I support tree planting campaign, it is the only way to guarantee our future survival,” she said.

Jerome Tusiime, an environmentalist based in Arusha, said natural forests and shrubs are being destroyed by illegal loggers and beekeepers, thus affecting rainfall patterns on the mountain’s lower slopes.

Tusiime urged communities living on Mount Kilimanjaro to protect water sources by replanting lost trees, investing in early warning systems, and make climate adaptation a top priority.

Logging scams have hit the tourist-drawing Kilimanjaro region, destroying its natural forests depleting rainfall, and lead to unusually higher temperatures.

Forests play important role in maintaining the natural water cycle around Mount Kilimanjaro, but natural forests are depleting due to the growing demand for timber and charcoal making.

Residents, who for decades had been used to a cold, misty climate, are surprised by the extreme weather currently experienced in the region.

“I have stopped growing coffee because the weather is not good for the crop,” said Anastazia Tarimo.

Deforestation is driven by illegal timber and charcoal dealers seeking better profits.

Higher temperatures as a result of climate change have increased the number of wildfires on the mountain thus accelerating the destruction of forests.

“Tree planting is a solution to climate change. It is cheap and everyone can get involved,” said Munuo.​​​​​​​/agencies

In the middle of a rugged swath on the edge of Pakistan's Thar desert, a state-of-the-art hospital treats more than 250 patients daily free of cost.

With weathered faces and attired in traditional garments, a group of women, some holding infants, were waiting to be seen as two female doctors checked on patients in the corner of a sprawling hall.

Located in remote Mithi, one of two towns where Hindus make up half the population, the 60-bed hospital is not a government facility but was established by the Al-Khidmat Foundation, a local charity.

The foundation also runs a nationwide chain of charity hospitals and is one of several key charities in this nuclear-armed country. It shares a significant burden in terms of food, health, education and other services which otherwise are meant to be provided by the government.

The hospital, which mainly focuses on female and pediatric health care, was planned in 2014 after the deaths of hundreds of children in the Thar desert region due to drought, and when malnutrition hit global headlines.

In addition to long distances, there are more structural issues that have contributed to the extraordinary number of deaths.

"We decided to set up a modern hospital in this remote area with the help of philanthropists to cater to hundreds of villages located deep inside the desert that have been badly affected by the drought," Aijazullah Khan, an official of the Al-Khidmat Foundation told Anadolu Agency.

The only government-run hospital in the area, Khan said, does not have proper laboratory and pharmacy services.

Almost 75% of the lives, he observed, could have been saved if malnourished children were taken to the hospital in time, diagnosed and required medical facilities were available.

"Apart from general checkups, all kinds of tests, pharmacy, and even operations are totally free of cost," he said, adding that the hospital also conducts 100 eye surgeries every month.

The availability of doctors at the state-run hospital, Khan acknowledged, has improved in recent years due to strict government actions.

The southern Thar region, also known as the Tharparkar district, comprises six towns and spans more than 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 miles) with a population of 1.5 million.

Agriculture and livestock, which heavily depend on monsoon rains, are key sources of income for Tharis -- a term uses to designate residents.

Pakistan is a generous country

Apart from the hospital, the Al-Khidmat Foundation has dug scores of tube wells across the desert to provide potable water to residents, who otherwise relied on rainwater.

The Dua Foundation, a Karachi-based charity group, launched an agro-farms project to make use of subsoil water for the cultivation of different crops throughout the year.

According to Dr. Faiyaz Alam, the foundation’s general secretary, 28 farms have been set up in different parts of Thar, making 250 acres of barren land arable and cultivable, where peasants are growing wheat, cotton, mustard, onions and different types of fodder for their livestock.

Pakistan is among a handful of countries that contribute more than 1% of their GDP to charity, according to a report by Stanford Social Innovation Review -- a magazine that looks into cross-sector solutions to global problems.

The contributions push it into the ranks of far wealthier countries like the UK and Canada that contribute 1.3%, and 1.2%, respectively. It is about twice what India gives to those in need as a percentage of its GDP.

Pakistanis give around 240 billion Pakistani rupees (nearly $1.5 billion) annually to charity, according to a study conducted by Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy.

Around 98% of Pakistanis, the report indicates, give in some way -- if not cash, with in-kind donations or volunteering for needy causes.

Asia’s largest free ambulance service

Local charities have contributed immensely, mainly in terms of cooked food and rations during coronavirus lockdown restrictions across Pakistan.

The Edhi Foundation, a relief agency founded by the internationally-acclaimed social worker, Abdul Sattar Edhi, was the first NGO that imported coronavirus testing kits and provided them to the government and charity hospitals in remote areas, in addition to distributing rations to needy families.

The charity, which runs a nationwide ambulance service, made a bulk of its ambulances available to transport suspected virus patients to hospitals and quarantine centers.

A network of charity hospitals in Pakistan is currently treating 350,000 patients every month.

Located in a low-income eastern outskirt of the port city of Karachi, Indus Hospital -- the largest campus of the chain -- caters to more than 2,500 deprived patients every day, free of cost.

From primary health care to cardiac surgery and even the treatment for challenging ailments like pediatric cancers are available for free in the network of hospitals, established by a group of doctors led by Dr. Abdul Bari Khan in 2007.

Saylani Welfare, another nationwide charity, introduced a mobile phone application and telephone service where needy families can register to get rations and other essential items.

Also, volunteers from the Alamgir Welfare Trust, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) -- a nationwide group of professional doctors -- Baitul Salam Trust, and other NGOs are still assisting the government in tackling the economic and medical needs of hundreds of thousands of needy people, especially those who have gone jobless due to the pandemic.

PIMA has set up an online facility to guide and assist suspected coronavirus patients.

Erdogan Trust

In addition to local charities, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan Trust is also running a chain of hospitals and blood centers which are operated by Indus Hospital.

The chain comprises seven hospitals -- five in Lahore and one each in Multan and Muzaffargarh districts.

The 400-bed Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital Trust in the Muzaffargarh district, located 380 kilometers (236 miles) from Lahore, was gifted in 2014.

The hospital provides free health care to patients, irrespective of their background.

The trust has also been running two blood banks one each in Multan and Bahawalpur districts./aa

The Bangladesh health care system is having to deal with a sharp spike in dengue fever cases as hospitals have been stretched thin in battling the delta-driven coronavirus with limited facilities.

Dengue claimed at least 48 lives in Bangladesh in 2021. A record 330 new patients were hospitalized with 284 people in Dhaka alone on Thursday while a total of 10,981 patients were diagnosed with the fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Bangladesh has been witnessing more than 200 dengue cases daily since the beginning of August.

Nazmul Haque Zenith, a service official at a government agency, was released from the hospital on Wednesday after 10 days of uninterrupted medical care.

Zenith, 32, was too weak to go to work as his body is facing a double blow of COVID-19 and dengue.

“We suspected that the dengue spread through a neighboring under-construction building in the Uttara area of the capital. Many others in our neighboring buildings got infected with dengue this year,” he told Anadolu Agency. “We passed through an untold suffering as three members of our family had to be admitted to hospitals, which caused financial burden apart from physical and mental trouble.”

Kabirul Bashar, a renowned medical entomologist and professor at Jahangirnagar University, told Anadolu Agency that “we also learned through a projection model that the dengue infection scenario would not dip or see any major changes in the next 15 days.”

“Dengue cases in the country would be at least four to five times higher than data provided by the DGHS. Many people do not visit hospitals despite being infected and DGHS does not have the number. On the other hand, the DGHS only keeps information on 41 hospitals,” he said.

Dengue becomes deadlier

Meanwhile, the death rate is higher in 2021.

Dengue claimed at least 179 lives with 101,354 infections in 2019, the deadliest outbreak of the disease in history. But 48 people died in 2021 with 10,000 infections, said Bashar, who cited data from the DGHS.

Researchers at the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research recently discovered a new dengue variant, Dengue Virus Type 3 (DENV-3). They said it is believed to be behind the spike.

Salim Khan, the principal scientific officer with the government-run institute, confirmed that finding to Anadolu Agency.

“People are becoming increasingly infected with the new dengue variant and we found a higher death rate from dengue this year compared to the dengue epidemic in 2019 in Bangladesh. An increasing number of children have also become victims of dengue fever this year, which is worrying,” he said.

Bashar said that there are four serotypes of dengue and when a patient is infected with a type, it is usually easy to recover because it provides immunity against that particular strand.

“But subsequent infection or infection by other strands causes developing severe dengue even life risk. And, dengue cases are rising because of the ‘wave pattern,’” he said.

Rising dengue cases among children worry experts

Children are more vulnerable to dengue because of less movement and thin skin, according to Bashar, who said the mortality rate among children is up in 2021.

The Director of Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, Quazi Md Rashid Un Nabi, told Anadolu Agency that hospitals are facing a rush of dengue patients and that has created additional pressure for facilities despite taking preparation.

“On average 45 - 55 dengue patients were admitted to our hospital, a major government hospital dedicated to treating dengue patients, since the last half of August with as many as 84 on Wednesday. And, currently, 224 are undergoing dengue treatment -- 34 are children,” said Un Nabi.

The number of pediatric patients is higher and treating children who go into dengue shock is comparatively difficult because of their vulnerable immune system so the death risk is high among minors, he explained.

Government claims situation under control

DGHS spokesman Dr. Nazmul Islam told Anadolu Agency that dengue outbreaks normally occur during the annual monsoon season in the densely populated country.

The agency, however, has already provided national guidelines on the outbreak to health care facilities.

“It’s additional pressure and challenge for the country’s healthcare to address the dengue outbreak amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We are visually seeing a surge in dengue cases and deaths against infections, including among children. But we finally could confirm it following our experts’ analysis,” he said.

“The government is well equipped to address both COVID and dengue. Though it’s a tough time, the country’s health care is capable of managing the situation, and the overall health situation is under control,” he added./agencies

The Council of Ministers has recently approved  recommendations to reduce expenditures and boost revenues through several measures.

The Al-Rai Arabic daily quoting government sources said the most important of these recommendations are:

1- Reducing budget spending by no less than 10 percent.

2 – Reconsidering and raising the cost of government services.

3- Collecting all outstanding government debts.

4- Reducing the cost of treatment abroad by 30 percent and limiting the facility to critical cases.

5 – Reviewing the perks granted to senior officials.

6 – Looking at the possibility of reducing the ‘rewards’ clause.

7- Looking at the possibility of employing more Kuwaitis in government institutions.

8 – Study the disbursement of food supplies to each Kuwaiti.