- Hardware shop owner gives free medicines
Braving rain, people have queued up in front of a small hardware shop in
Ponnani. The shop has no name board and no hardware is to be seen, but the
customers get what they want.
The shop, owned by K.V. Aboo-backer, 64, distributes medicines free of cost to
people who come with prescriptions. This one-man show, known as Aboobacker Self
Service (ABSS), is a boon for many poor patients in Malappuram, Palakkad,
Thrissur and Kozhikode districts of Kerala State.
Aboobacker started the service under the aegis of a Muslim social service
organisation. Even as he opened a hardware shop in 1971, he began distributing
free medicines. He quit the hardware business in 1993 to work full-time for
ABSS. Soon, tablets, syrups, injection modules and capsules were piling up in
the shop. ABSS now runs without support from any organisation.
Aboobacker has a wide network of contacts with doctors in five districts. Every
week, he goes to hospitals to collect free medicine samples and excess
medicines. He stores the medicines in his shop. Medicines that need to be
stored at cold temperature are refrigerated at his house.
An unassuming man who has studied only up to class X, Aboobacker is
knowledgeable about medicines. “Through frequent interaction with doctors and
also by reading pharmacology journals, I keep myself informed of all the
particulars of medicines including their dosage, side-effects and expiry
dates,” he says. Doctors vouch for his reliability. Says Dr P.M. Viswanathan, a
general practitioner near Ponnani, “Often Aboobacker surprises even medical
professionals with his knowledge of medicines.”
At least 75 patients come here for medicines daily. Patients from distant
places are served first, but emergency cases are attended immediately, even at
midnight.
Aboobacker distributes even expensive medicines for heart disease, diabetes and
blood pressure. P. Moidu of Cherpulasserry, who has been suffering from heart
disease and diabetes for the past seven years, used to be a regular at ABSS.
Now, his 14-year-old son Ashiq comes here every month. Says Ashiq, “The
medicines needed for father each month could cost Rs 15,000. He has survived
only with Aboobacker sahib’s help.”
Aboobacker says the smiles of the people he has served are his rewards. They
consider him family and invite him home.
Sometimes, when the medicines prescribed are not in stock, he buys them. Each
year he spends at least Rs 50,000 on buying medicines, he says. Philanthropists
send donations. Aboobacker says his family—wife and three well-settled
children—has no complaints about his spending for ABSS.
Aboobacker gives excess stock to government hospitals and has sent medicines to
disaster zones after floods and earthquakes. Social organisations, conducting
free medical camps for the poor, have often approached him for medicines.
He also helps patients meet specialist doctors by writing letters of
introduction. Doctors respect him and the Indian Medical Association has given
him a certificate of recognition and advised its members to give him assistance.
Rain or shine, Aboobacker’s shop remains open for the patients. He says with a
smile, “God has given me this life to serve others in this humble manner.”
The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"BETTER PERSONALITY GROUP" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/better_personality?hl=en.
