The History of Fatimid Foundation: From a Pavement Room to a National Network
In 1978, Fatimid Foundation started in a small room on the pavement of Britto Road in Karachi. No national network, no centres across the country, just one man who saw a gap nobody else was closing.
That man was the late Nazim Jiwa, and the gap he saw was simple to describe and devastating in scale: Pakistan had no adequate, free national blood transfusion service, and the children suffering from chronic blood disorders paid the price for that absence every single day.
Today, Fatimid Foundation stands as one of the country's most established examples of a non-profit organization in Pakistan built entirely around closing that exact gap.
Why It Had to Exist
The scale of the problem Nazim Jiwa was responding to is worth understanding clearly, because it explains everything about how the organization grew from there.
Pakistan requires more than 8,000 units of blood every single day nationally, and transfusion needs have consistently outstripped what's actually available. That shortage gets worse once safety enters the picture. A high prevalence of Hepatitis B and C among potential donors, affecting an estimated ten million people in Pakistan, made safe, properly screened blood even harder to guarantee. For patients needing regular transfusions, many of them children with thalassaemia, haemophilia, or other blood disorders, an unscreened or unreliable blood supply wasn't just inconvenient. It was dangerous.
From One Room to Ten Centres
What started in that single room on Britto Road has since grown into Pakistan's largest voluntary blood transfusion service, a transformation that didn't happen through one big leap, but through steady expansion into the places that needed it most.
Fatimid Foundation now operates centres across:
Karachi, serving as the Foundation's headquarters
Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, and Quetta
Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, and Rashidabad (Tando Allahyar)
Khairpur and Larkana
Across these centres, Fatimid Foundation transfuses more than 8,000 bags of fully screened blood and blood products every month to its registered patients, the majority of them children living with chronic, painful blood disorders that make regular transfusion a permanent part of life, not a one-time treatment.
How It's Actually Run
Longevity like this doesn't happen by accident, and Fatimid Foundation's structure reflects that.
The Foundation was established under a formal trust deed, first registered in Karachi and later reinstated, which vests authority in a Board of Trustees responsible for the organization's direction.
That Board elects a Chairman, currently Lt. Gen. (Retired) Moinuddin Haider, and a Chief Operating Officer, currently Dr. Waleed Bin Azhar, who runs the Foundation's day-to-day operations in line with the policies the Board sets. Its governance is built for a national-scale institution, not an informal charity still operating like its founding days.
Where This History Leads
Every centre Fatimid Foundation has opened since 1978 traces back to the same founding principle: no patient should go without safe blood because they couldn't afford it.
That continuity, from a pavement room to a ten-centre national network, is exactly what separates a lasting institution from a short-lived initiative. It's also why Fatimid Foundation's standing as a trusted non-profit organization in Pakistan rests on more than four decades of consistent delivery, not just a founding story people still remember fondly.
FAQ’s
Who founded Fatimid Foundation?
The late Nazim Jiwa founded Fatimid Foundation in 1978 in Karachi, starting from a small room on Britto Road.
How many centres does Fatimid Foundation operate today?
Ten centres across Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Quetta, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Rashidabad, Khairpur, and Larkana.
Why was Fatimid Foundation originally established?
To provide free, safe blood and blood components to patients with chronic blood disorders, addressing Pakistan's lack of an adequate national transfusion service.
How is Fatimid Foundation governed?
Through a Board of Trustees under a formal trust deed, with an elected Chairman and a Chief Operating Officer managing daily operations.
How much blood does Fatimid Foundation provide each month?
More than 8,000 bags of fully screened blood and blood products to registered patients across its centres every month.
Conclusion
A small room on a Karachi pavement in 1978 doesn't usually turn into a national institution.
This one did, because the problem it was built to solve never stopped needing solving, and the people running it never stopped showing up for it.
That's the whole history, really. Not one dramatic moment, but forty-seven years of consistency.
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