Houstonian Corner (V10-I24)

Being happy throughout life needs one to be giving all the time: Fayyaz Merchant at the Inauguration of the Latest Oasis Seniors and Medical Campus

In the presence of hundreds of prominent political, social and professional of the Greater Houston Region at a Grand Dinner, John Young and CEO of Chaparral Group AL Fairfield, and Fayyaz Merchant of Merchants Group, Inc. (http://www.merchant2merchant.com/) proudly announced the inauguration of the new campus of Oasis Seniors and Medical Center (http://www.oasismedicalcampus.com/). Tanzeel Merchant, daughter of Mr. Merchant, who started the proceedings with translation of Chapter One of Quran, announced that she will be bringing the Ambulance Po Service to this facility (http://ambulancepro.com/). Ambulance Pro will be providing complete ambulance service to the residents of the senior center, where it will provide superior service by utilizing the new technologies. This will eventually become nationwide service to be achieved before the first quarter ends in 2011.

Keynote speaker on the occasion was the City of Houston Mayor Pro-Tem Adrian Garcia, who saluted the efforts of doctors and entrepreneurs coming together and creating a positive partnership of providing world class health facilities to our senior citizens. Also present was Congressman AL-Green, who talked about the ever depleting health care system of USA and lauded this initiative of Chaparral and Merchants Groups, gave Special Congressional Proclamations to the Oasis Center and Ambulance Pro. The City of Houston Councilman M. J. Khan talked about the good eastern values of serving the needs of the seniors, since when we were small; they had worked hard to bring us up. Others, who spoke on the occasion, included Mayor Leonard Scarcella of the City of Stafford, Terry Henley Alderman No. 4 and Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Meadows Place, Dr. Sohail Siddiqui, Dr. Warren Cross (Eye-Care), Dr. Asaf Qadeer, Sahar Wali and Ghulam Bombaywala.

AL Fairfield and Fayyaz Merchant giving details of the complex said that it is a 30 acre multiplex of 750-Million Dollars, where there will be 180 state-of-the-art assisted living residences for senior citizens, a 162,000 square feet hospital building and nine storey professional building with physician offices. Everything will be connected with each other by scenic bridges and sky-tunnels. Located on the campus will be emergency center and full acute care hospital facilities to service targeted market in cooperation with Ambulance Pro within ten mile radius around this site, which is located on the border of two locales, the City of Stafford and the City of Meadows Place. Another uniqueness of the facility is that group of doctors are working with the developers in arranging all the hospital privileges to completely fulfill the federal laws and state regulations. The physicians utilizing the hospital facilities will be those with their professional offices in the nine
story 206,000 square feet Oasis Medical Office Buildings. One of those physicians is Dr. Sohail Siddiqui, whose team will lease two floors, will be providing Long Term Care (LTEC) for acutely ill patients, as well general medical and surgical procedure location for the entire family.

On the long run, there is also idea of developing a Gymkhana style location within the campus to play games, sports and just relax and enjoy gourmet cuisines. For more information, please 713-468-1500 for Oasis Center and 713-224-6300 for Ambulance Pro.

DIL-Houston Organizes Grand Annual Gala Dinner – 2008

In a most colorful ceremony, the Developments in Literacy (DIL) Houston Chapter organized their Annual Gala Dinner 2008. Present on the occasion were hundreds of donors and well-wishers of DIL. This year was special, since now the Consul General of Pakistan Hon. Aquil Nadeem and his wife Tahsina Nadeem, have become Honorary Chairpersons of DIL. They as well as all the administrative members and volunteers of DIL-Houston were present, including President Zeba Shah, V.P. Naila Quresh, Secretary Tauseef Salma, Nadir Shah, Salma Siddiqi, Aquila Chawdahry, Rosie Khan, Abdullah Jafari and Uzma Bawkher. After the sumptuous dinner served right on time according to the traditions of DIL, a cultural extravaganza was presented.

For our readers, “the Developments in Literacy (DIL) is dedicated to providing quality education to disadvantaged children, especially girls, by establishing and operating schools in the underdeveloped regions of Pakistan, with a strong focus on gender equality and community participation. DIL’s vision is that no child in Pakistan poor or rich should be denied access to quality education. All children should have equal opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute toward the socio-economic betterment of their communities.

DIL was started in 1997 by Pakistani expatriates living in affluent Southern California, so as to give back to their country of origin. DIL grew over the years and quickly spread by opening Chapters in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Houston, San Diego; Toronto and Ottawa, Canada; Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Today DIL is operating 182 schools in all four provinces of Pakistan and educating over 15,000 students. DIL establishes, adopts and operates primary and secondary schools in Pakistan for underprivileged children, particularly girls. DIL manages 149 schools in partnerships with seven non-governmental and non-profit organizations, and DIL directly operates 23 schools.

DIL is committed to raising the standard of education in all of its schools by providing ongoing teacher training, improving school construction and environment, establishing libraries and computer labs.

For more information, one can call Ms. Zeba Shah at 713-464-4648 or E-Mail zebashah1@yahoo.com