About Sindhi Sabha
Sindhi Sabha of Georgia was founded in 1990. Its primary goal is to promote, educate and preserve Sindhi culture, traditions and customs among Sindhi children and youth within the framework of the Indian culture in the American society.
Upcoming Events
Diwali Ball 2004 - Sindhi Sabha proudly presents Diwali Ball, a night of dinner, dancing and entertainment on Saturday, November 20, 2004 at The Marriott Century Center (Atlanta Marriott North Central) located at 2000 Century Boulevard, off Clairmont Road (Phone No. 4881-11102) 7:30 p.m. onwards. Ticket prices for purchase by October 31, 2004 are: Member Adult - $40 each, Member Child (age 6 to 12) - $20 each; Non-member Adult - $50 each, Non-member Child (age 6 to 12) - $30 each; Children aged 5 years and under - free. Ticket prices in all categories will be $5 more per ticket if purchased after October 31, 2004 and $10 more per ticket if purchased at gate on November 20, 2004. Please make checks, for purchasing Diwali Ball tickets, payable to "Sindhi Sabha of Georgia" and mail them, with details re: number of adult and child tickets, to Shaku Makhijani, Treasurer, at 4025 McGinnis Ferry Road, #703, Suwanee, Georgia 30024.
Diwali Ball 2004 Variety Entertainment program - Sindhi Sabha is planning a variety entertainment program with participation by adults and children. If you would like to participate in the program, please contact Komal Seernani, Social Director, at (770)664-8672. Please note that you must be a member of Sindhi Sabha to participate in the program.
Earn Free Diwali Ball 2004 Tickets - You can earn free Diwali Ball Tickets by submitting $300 worth advertising per ticket for Sindhi Sabha's 2004-2005 Directory. Advertising rates are: full inside page - $125, half inside page - $75, quarter inside page - $50; inside front cover in color, inside back cover in color and four center pages in color - $250 per page; back cover page in color - $300.
MembershipAn Open Letter from Toni and David McCaffery
We write this letter broken hearted and feel like we failed our daughter.
We were happy and complete following the birth of our third child Dana. Today, we are shattered at the preventable death of our beautiful girl.
We moved to the Northern Rivers to bring our family up in this pristine environment. However, we did not realise this was a hotbed for contagious and potentially deadly viruses.
Our sweet Dana is the innocent victim of dangerously low levels of awareness and even lower vaccination rates. Instead of her photo winning baby competitions, she is the tragic face of a Whooping Cough (Pertussis) epidemic and sparked a national vaccination debate.
Our two other children are immunised. Dana never got the chance.
We did everything by the book while pregnant: checked Rubella immunity, took Folic Acid, avoided high-risk foods, and monitored glucose. Dana was born a perfectly healthy 7 pounds, 4 ounces. And her beauty took our breath away.
We breastfed, sterilised and followed SID guidelines. But, we were oblivious to Whooping Cough and the rate of notifications on the NSW North Coast. Yes, we saw some posters, but it beggars belief that not one health professional warned us about the risks, scale of the epidemic or precautions to take – not the GP, the obstetrician, the hospital midwives while the epidemic raged in the children’s ward, or the early childhood nurse.
What started as a blocked nose escalated into our worst nightmare. From 11 days old, Dana became more unsettled at night and started to cough from three weeks of age. After she tested positive for Pertussis, we went straight to the hospital.
However, we were not alarmed because we thought antibiotics could treat it. Wrong. The antibiotics only stop you infecting others. There is no treatment to cure Whooping Cough and we had to watch in horror as the Pertussis took its course.
First, our tiny daughter coughed uncontrollably until she turned blue and required oxygen to regain her breath. She was fed through a nasal-gastro tube, was given fluid via a drip and placed in an oxygen headbox. The paediatrician told us that when Dana could recover without oxygen we could go home, but she would continue having coughing attacks for up to 100 days and possible respiratory complications. However, this is for the ‘lucky ones’.
Dana developed Pneumonia on the third day. She was placed on a ventilator and airlifted to Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. We still did not panic, on the advice she would be there for a week until she was strong enough to breathe on her own.
On the fifth day, the Pertussis took an unexpected and deadly turn. In what seemed an instant, Dana had an aggressive reaction to the toxin, which attacked her immune system and heart. The Pertussis blocked every drug or treatment that the team of specialists could throw at it. We were powerless to save her. After nearly 10 hours of desperate blood transfusions, Dana’s beautiful heart stopped beating and she let out her last sweet breath.
The only thing that could have saved Dana was preventing her catching Pertussis.
We wrongly assumed our family was protected because we were all vaccinated at birth. However, we did not know that:
- The Northern Rivers region has one of the nation’s lowest childhood vaccination rates
- The vaccination wanes after 10-12 years, so almost 90% of adults are no longer immunised
- Vaccination is only effective if the majority of the community does it.
This means that if you are immunised, you can still contract Pertussis from the high number of people that don’t vaccinate or are no longer immune. Many people carrying Pertussis don’t realise it – they may have an irritating cough or no symptoms at all.
Newborns are helpless and it takes just one breath to infect them.
Dana contracted Pertussis in the first weeks of her life. No one else in our family has tested positive for Pertussis or had a cough. We have tortured ourselves with questions: Was it in the hospital? Was it from our son’s school or daughter’s childcare centre? Was it at the GPs? Was it at a birthday party? Or was it a loving relative or friend who doesn’t know they have the bacteria?
It doesn’t matter… we are all innocent victims in this.
We are devastated that Dana’s death is the catalyst for change and dearly wish we had the chance to wrap her in cotton wool as families across Australia are doing now.
Lismore Base Hospital has been admitting up to two children per week for Pertussis and Dana was the third newborn airlifted from this region to Brisbane in as many weeks. But, no one in our community knew.
The day after Dana died; NSW Health issued alerts and provided free boosters for new parents and grandparents. The Minister for Health then advised that public health officers were writing to all new parents to advise them of the free boosters and we also understand information packs have been produced. This is too little too late for us.
NSW Health should have proactively alerted the community of outbreaks and precautions to take before it became an epidemic. This requires more than just posters and media releases. We need advertising campaigns supported by vigilant screening, consistent advice from frontline health workers and free boosters for all adults.
However, the efforts of a few are futile. Everyone in our community must work together to increase vaccination rates to protect our most vulnerable.
Please learn from our past. Vaccination was introduced because there is no medicine to stop these bacteria that killed and maimed thousands of children. Now, these third-world diseases are on the rise again. In NSW it is Whooping Cough. In Queensland it is Measles.
Do you want to live in a country where we are too scared to have friends or family visit our babies or we won’t leave our homes?
For anyone that dismisses the facts, please walk in our shoes. We cry ourselves to sleep with memories of our daughter coughing until she couldn’t breathe, attached to a ventilator, going into cardiac arrest and holding her bruised and swollen body after her heart stopped.
We were inconsolable as we left our baby in the hospital morgue and drove home from Brisbane with an empty baby capsule. We weep as we explain to our children that their baby sister isn’t coming home and remember her trusting eyes pleading for help. Our hearts broke when our six-year old son helped carry her tiny pink coffin out of the church. And when our children ask why Dana died, we falter, because it was completely preventable.
We are comforted by the overwhelming support, prayers and acts of kindness we have received from across Australia and around the world.
People ask how they can help ease our pain. We simply ask that:
- All parents vaccinate their children
- All adults get a booster, which the government should make free for everyone
- If you have a cough, get tested for Pertussis to prevent the spread of the bacteria
- All levels of government and health workers improve processes to warn the community of outbreaks of any virus or disease and precautions to take.
We owe it to Dana.
Yours in Community
Toni and David McCaffery
The Sindhi Sabha membership for 2004 starts from Sindhi New Year or Cheti Chand which was on March 22, 2004 and is for one year.
If you haven't paid your membership yet, please send the check payable to "Sindhi Sabha of Georgia" for either $15 (Individual membership), $30 (Single household family) or $60 (Multi household family). Membership dues incur $10 late fee after Sindhi Sabha's picnic date (June 20, 2004).
The checks for membership should be made payable to "Sindhi Sabha of Georgia" and mailed to Shaku Makhijani, Treasurer, at 4025 McGinnis Ferry Road, #703, Suwanee, Georgia 30024.
On a separate sheet of paper, please give the following information - Name, Address, Spouse's name, Phone number, email address and Children's names
Useful Links
www.sadhuvaswani.org is the official website for the Sadhu Vaswani mission.
Alliance of Sindhi Associations of Americas
sindhiinfo.com
The Sindhi of India
DFW Sindhi Association
Sindhi Association of New Jersey (SANJ)
www.sindhi-net.com