It gives us immense pleasure to announce the completion of past projects and to inform you of our current work for which we need your help.As you know, our aim is to develop healthcare in Kashmir. Feedback from both the hospitals and those visiting the hospitals have been very positive. Although much still needs to be done to improve healthcare in Kashmir, we believe that together we are making a difference already. Some of the successful projects that we have had within the last few years include:

A fraction of this amount was used for purchasing textbooks for the Pediatric Library in Children's Hospital at Lal Mandi.

We also provided them with a semiautomatic chemistry analyzer to help with labs on patients during off hours and in a timely fashion for emergent patients

We are in the process of helping establish a division of Infertility at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, for work up and management of infertility. Currently there is no support for such medical problems except for referring patients to costly facilities outside the valley, most of which are quite expensive. With the help and guidance of Dr. Tariq Shah, we helped in launching the first seminar on infertility in Kashmir in association with the department of Urology, Endocrinology and Immunology. We hope that this will be a stepping stone for the establishment of a division there. Work in Progress: We are still in need of donations for the completion of projects for this year. Our goals are listed below and we hope that you will continue to support our efforts.

As we all are aware the Children's Hospital at subzi mandi does not have a neonatal critical care and a pediatric critical care unit; they regularly transport sick children to Institute of Medical Sciences at Soura. One can just imagine the drive from subzi mandi to Soura without a well equipped transportation system. To alleviate one aspect of this, we are hoping to purchase a pediatric transport ventilator system which we feel is the need of the hour.

Affiliation with International Association of Kashmiri Pediatricians in UK to support their program to train local Kashmiri physicians, to establish neonatal and pediatric resuscitation during their second annual meeting in Srinagar in 2005.

As mentioned earlier, last year we took the step of trying to help set up an infertility clinic at SKIMS. The work on the first part of this two-phase plan has begun. As of now, an interdisciplinary clinic for diagnostic work up of infertility patients has begun at SKIMS. The second phase of this plan envisages the setting up of therapeutic Andrology and Embryology, including in vitro fertilization services, to cater to the needs of infertility specialists and endocrinologists. As a prelude to this, training opportunities for specialists in India and outside are being explored. Initial responses toward accomplishing this objective have been encouraging and we hope to continue to do our best to establish this service for the Kashmiri people.

Children of Kashmir also had a meeting with various Kashmiris about the idea and possibility of starting a health center in Kashmir in the future such that it would be under our oversight and we are able to maintain certain standards and contribute to the society there at large without having to deal with the politics of other already established institutions. Details of the idea are still a work in progress and if any of our members would like more information or have any suggestions/comments, please email us directly and we would be happy to share that information with you. At the same time however, we continue to believe that practical projects such as we are currently involved in will always be needed and we hope to do our best to make sure that we don't lose sight of this type of contribution.

The above work for 2004 is still in progress as we haven't yet reached our goal to finances the above. At this time, the preliminary cost estimates show that the above mentioned projects will cost about 15,000 to 20,000 USD. We can provide further details to those interested. We hope that all of you will continue to provide the support that you have in the past and in addition realize that all of us together are making a difference on the ground. We encourage every member to visit these sites when in Kashmir to see first hand where our efforts have gone and in addition to give us feedback on how we can do things better. Although admittedly small steps, we believe that these are steps in the right direction and with your continued and increased support, we are confident that all this is only the beginning of more and better things to come.

The main project for the year 2004 has been organized in coordination with the Arfa Faroque Khan Foundation in New York. Due to the current circumstances and growth of our projects, Children of Kashmir has decided to officially collect for the projects in collaboration with the AFK Foundation for the time being. The AFK Foundation is a registered non-profit and tax exempt organization here in U.S. The checks can be made out to "Arfa Faroque Khan Foundation" and sent to one of the Children of Kashmir staff members.

Please indicate in the Memo section that the check is for "Children of Kashmir." Once we have received your contribution, we will confirm receipt through personal contact and at that time provide the tax exemption ID for tax purposes. You can send the contributions to the Children of Kashmir staff member you have spoken to at one of the following addresses:

Khurshid A. Guru Children of Kashmir

4732 Palmer St. Dearborn,

MI 48126 U.S.A.

Shuja Yousuf Children of Kashmir

404 Overlook Drive Brandon,

MS 39042

Thank you again for your continued support. As always, we welcome any comments, suggestions or criticisms as we are continuously trying to improve and grow as an organization. Your thoughts have been invaluable in this process and we hope that you will once again provide some insights. Acknowledgements: In addition to all of you who have continued to contribute monetarily to our projects, we would also like to sincerely thank those that volunteer their time. They are the ones who make things happen on the ground and we thank them and others for their dedication and hard work. We would also like to thank all the dedicated and hard working physicians and other healthcare staff who work tirelessly in Kashmir in dangerous and difficult situations, serving our people with the little they have. Without them our organization and Kashmir itself would be nowhere. A sincere thank you to them personally from the staff and members of Children of Kashmir. At this time our website is in the process of being updated with new information and is under construction.
We invite all of you to visit us at http://www.childrenofkashmir.org.

We also hope that you will inform others of our organization and work and help us in achieving our goal of alleviating some of the healthcare problems in Kashmir. We hope that all of us will continue to work together in this worthy cause.