WAPPNA Projects

Mental Wellbeing is our theme for this year.

We are fortunate to have Dr. Farha Abbasi as our speaker, mentor, psychiatrist, and Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. She has done extensive work worldwide and is passionate about the South Asian community and how mental health affects this community.

We are also very grateful to Dr. Mohammed Zeeshan, who practices Child Psychiatry and has advised WAPPNA on such issues.

Dr. Farha Abbasi, Md

Dr. Farha Abbasi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan State University and a core Muslim Studies Program faculty member. She is from Pakistan and settled in the United States in 2000 with her three daughters. In January 2009, Dr. Abbasi received the American Psychiatric association SAMSHA Minority fellowship. She used the grant money to create awareness about cultural competency and redefine it as tolerance and acceptance.

Her areas of interest are cultural psychiatry and teaching medical students how to provide culturally appropriate care to Muslim patients. She works directly with the Muslim American community to encourage integration rather than isolation from mainstream society. In addition to her efforts to build bridges between the two cultures, Dr. Abbasi’s work as a psychiatrist has led her to address the barriers that stigmatize and silence mental health.
She is the founding director of the Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference. In 2018 the tenth conference was held at the United State Institute Of Peace in Washington, DC. In addition, she launched a Global Muslim Mental Health Conference in Malaysia and Jordan. She is also the managing editor of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health and Director of the Muslim Mental Health Consortium at Michigan State University.
Dr. Abbasi has received numerous awards for serving the community and promoting mental health. Dr. Abbasi was an Honoree, National Alliance of Mentally Ill, and American Psychiatric Foundation Award for Promoting Minority Mental Health and Globie award winner, Office of International Students Services, Community Service Award by All Pakistanis Physician of North America and Community Service Award by Pakistan Women Association of Michigan.
She has served on many boards and committees, including Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities American Psychiatric Association. She currently chairs the Mental Health Task Force for the Mayor of Lansing, Michigan.
She works relentlessly and tirelessly towards one goal: Learning to coexist and go beyond our differences to reach the common point of peace and prosperity.

Learn more

Muhammad Zeeshan, MD

Clinical Assistant professor psychiatry, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Harvard Medical School-Boston Children’s Hospital.
Board Certified in Adult and Child Psychiatry
Infant-Parent Mental Health fellowship at Umass, Boston.
Current Zero to Three Fellow
Received >10 regional, national, and international awards for academic excellence, teaching, and leadership from the American Psychiatry Association, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training, and Nishtar Alumni of North America.
Presented many workshops and posters at regional and national conferences, published articles, and co-authored a book chapter in the field of psychiatry

Actively involved in teaching medical students, residents, fellows, pediatricians, psychologists, and school staff in the US and Pakistan

Both these speakers will be speaking at our annual summer meeting in New Jersey in July this year to coincide with the APPNA meeting. We are also looking at ways to expand our mental health outreach to underserved communities, and it is a work in progress. We are holding regular webinars on psych issues, and DR Abbasi has been our speaker, and various topics have been discussed. This will continue for the rest of the year.

Click on the link below to view WAPPNA “War on Women Project”

WAR ON WOMEN PROJECT

Highlights

Flood relief involves rebuilding the homes of the people of KPK in Pakistan. We were able to house them back in their previously destroyed homes due to the floods.
Clean water supply provided to a community in Sindh in collaboration with a local non-profit.
Asian Human Rights Commission report by Wappna highlighted the atrocities on women and children against the war on terror. This was presented to the State Dept.
Financial support was provided to a school in the village of Kasran near Rawalpindi to teach computer science to the local students. Laptops were donated, and running expenditure was provided as long as we had it under our care.
Scholarships are given to deserving, underprivileged students in Pakistan.
Amnesty International and Human Watch participation organized by Amnesty International on Internal Womens Day in Washington DC.
Wappna organized the first Youth Conference in New York in 2010 under the banner of Appna.
Participated in the US State Dept discussion to facilitate US- Pak relations.
Sponsored the Julian Center, a shelter for abused women and children of South Asian descent.
Annual Wappna meetings have invited prominent Pakistani American professionals and Pakistani diplomats to be keynote speakers.
Wappna sponsored the housing project in Detroit, Michigan, for Pakistani women physicians coming to the US to take their exams and apply for residency positions. Wappna bought a van to facilitate the transportation of these women physicians.
The Razia Zohra Memorial Institute was founded in Jhang to train local women to learn sewing and develop skills to adopt a trade to be financially self-sufficient.
Wappna physicians joined the Appna team to provide medical aid and distribute free medical supplies, food, and clothing to the Rohingya refugees stranded in Bangladesh in 2017.
It is worth noting that Wappna has 0% overhead as we do our charitable projects at our own cost and sometimes will use our family members, who are just as vested as we are in these projects.