Syed Naeem ul Hassan was born on 9th February -1960 at old Sukkur in the province of Sindh He belongs to an educated Syed family from UP. His grandfather was a Pesh Imam (a highly respected position in British India), while his profession was hikmat (traditional medicine).His father migrated to Pakistan on 14 August 1947 under very difficult conditions along with his wife. Naeem has five brothers and two sisters. His father settled down in Old Sukkur and worked for Pakistan Railways.
This was the turning point in his life. As he recovered, Naeem kept his promise and joined LRBT (Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust) in 1990- a prominent NGO in Pakistan providing free eye treatment to the poor where he was exposed to charitable work and a greater desire to serve humanity.
Naeem was part of the team at LRBT till establishment of 7 purposely built hospitals at Korangi Karachi, Tando Bago, Tando Adam, Gambat, Lahore Township, Akora Khattak and Kalakalay (Swat). This fast progress continues and till 2012 LRBT is operating 16 purposely built hospitals and 27 outreach facilities.
He then moved on to join lmran Khan’s SKMT (Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust) as the General Manager for the Karachi region. Among his contributions to SKMT was the acquisition of a 20 acre piece of land to build a hospital in Karachi, and 2,275 sq yds of land from DHA as a donation to build a Diagnostic Centre. During his tenure, he raised over Rs. 2 billion from Karachi for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital over a period of 10 years.
This was a great learning period for him where hundreds and thousands of people suffering from cancer were treated. Truly the real cure comes from Allah alone. But at the same time, man must also make his own efforts and Allah rewards him for it.
Naeem was thus blessed by Allah where he devoted himself to the service of mankind. After great thought and an internal desire to do even more, he made his next move. He left a very highly paid job with SKMT to start an NGO that would aim to do a lot more for the poor children. Naeem established and started CHAEF – Children Health and Education Foundation in 2002. The primary objective of CHAEF is to work in the fields of health and education. In this regard, within this short period of time, CHAEF
has done wonders.
Many prominent Pakistanis and companies have come forth to recognize his work and have provided monetary and other support to CHAEF.
Syed Naeemul Hassan told me that idea of providing Free Primary Healthcare Services to the poor and needy came
to mind in 1989 and proposal was submitted to Mian Nawaz Sharif then Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The Proposal was appreciated and was forwarded to the concerned department but was not implemented. He then established a Foundation (CHAEF) a NPO which started operation in August 2002.
The objective of the Foundation was based on the premise that large Specialty Hospitals were being built at exorbitant cost to manage end-stage Diseases whereas at a fraction of a cost these very diseases could have been detected prevented and treated in a Primary Healthcare facility.
This was based on his over 22 years of experience at the LRBT and Shaukat Khanum cancer Hospital where blindness could have been prevented and cancer could have been treated had it been detected earlier at an extremely low cost at a Primary Healthcare Centre Conviced with this idea he developed a vision of establishing these much needed Primary Health Care Centers all over Pakistan so as to provide Free Consultation Diagnoses, Treatment and Medication for common ailments which if left undetected, untreated at the intial stages can lead to kidney failure, terminal Cancer, blindness, heart disease, the list is endless. A unique model was established to provide (at the same premises) Education activities in the morning, Vocational Training in the afternoon and Healthcare in the evening.
A new Trust was registered on April 20th 2012 with the name of cancer Research & Treatment Foundation on which shall establish State of Art cancer Treatment and Care Hospital with Research Centre at Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar and Quetta . Dr. Shaharyar Professor of Clinical Oncology King Edward Medical University Lahore and Chairman Cancer Research Group Foundation of Pakistan has been elected as the President and Syed Naeemul Hassan as Chairman of the Foundation respectively.
The Primary objective of the cancer treatment and Care Hospital is to treat and care all types of Cancer patients whether it is treatable or non treatable as Hospital will be having all facilities for treatment, Radiation ,Surgery Chemotherapy state of art Laboratories and Diagnostic Centre Emergency Service Out Patients and the most important the pain management Palliative Centre with Hospice so that patients pass their last phase of life PAIN FREE and poor people may not sell out their homes ,jewelry, house hold items to reduce the pain of their loved ones.
While he worked for SKMT, he continued to support other charitable organizations as well. He worked for the following purely on a voluntary basis:
Other philanthropists who sought out Naeem’s services included the late legendary film star Mohammed Ali who wanted to establish a kidney transplant centre in Lahore, late Hakim Saeed who shared ideas on establishment of a Women’s college in Madinat-ui-Hikmat. The Governor of Sindh recommended to the Sindh Health Dept to utilize Naeem’s expertise for betterment of conditions of the poor in Sindh.