New Delhi: Fighting for the cause of Cancer, Delhi – based non – profit organisation Sanjeevani – Life Beyond Cancer, has been conferred Grant Thorton – SABERA Awards for the year 2020. The award has been given to Sanjeevni for its yeomen service for transforming lives of persons battling cancer and raising the bar of cancer care by implementing many innovative programs.
Sanjeevani works in the core areas of health, skill development and awareness thorugh its programs designed for handholding, caring, counselling, emotional and financial rehabilitation of patients; and creating awareness on healthy lifestyle, prevention and early detection of cancer.
Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer was founded in 2009 by Ruby Ahluwalia with the aim to make journey of cancer for underprivileged patients and their families less strenuous, thus enabling them to complete their treatment and live as productive members of the society thereafter.
Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer Founder Ruby Ahluwalia says, “Being a cancer victor, I wanted to not only help underprivileged cancer patients but also impact the mind-set and negative attitude that sinks in with the illness. We at Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer are constantly trying to raise the bar of cancer care in India. I wish Sanjeevani be present in every state of India in the next three years giving our emotional, psychological and physical support to cancer patients in the smaller towns and cities.”
Sanjeevani currently helps patients in 12 Indian states (15 Super specialty hospitals) and has enriched lives of over 2,50,000 patients in eight years, since inception, through a dedicated team of caregivers, Faculty Members, interns and volunteers.
Sanjeevani works predominantly with underprivileged patients and the programs offered by them are free of cost to patients.
As Ruby says, “We navigate patients for the full spectrum from despair to wellness thus rehabilitating them as productive members of the society and I therefore think of Sanjeevani as a nation builder and not just an NGO.”
Sanjeevani’s contribution during COVID 19 has been immense. The COVID infused lockdown was a nightmare for cancer patients. Their treatments stopped; the availability of medicines became a problem; the patients could not reach the hospitals. Patients felt restless, clueless, and scared.
Sanjeevani’s entire team immediately sprang into action. While hospitals had to curtail their OPDs in view of COVID – 19, Sanjeevani’s team have been leveraging technology and have been connecting with these patients with doctors thru video calls providing free consultation and the much-needed medical advice.
In addition to the above, Sanjeevani started a Tele helpline for counselling patients and received more than 700 calls daily and have helped over 85,000 cancer patients till date.
Sanjeevani’s Online Immunity Building Sessions on strengthening immunity and fighting cancer more gained momentum as it ran deeper into lockdown. The sessions delivered by experts employ a multimodal approach, teaching people various processes to understand the role of food, breath, managing pain, facilitating medical advice by oncologists and psychological states in maintaining their immunity and releasing emotional stress.
About Grant Thorton – SABERA Social and Business Enterprise Responsible Awards & Summit
SABERA amplifies development initiatives and projects which push the envelope to create a larger social impact. The platform hosts and builds a positive narrative of India’s success stories by showcasing and acknowledging successful, inspiring stories of impact and development on a larger platform which is shared by multiple stakeholders. The annual event attracts nationwide participation by diverse organizations and individuals that have direct social impact as part of their bottom line and attracts nationwide participation. The theme for awards this year was ‘Humanity beyond Calamity: Preparing for the new world order’, emphasising how the Corporates and Non Profits are realigning focus to create a larger social impact. The summit preceding the awards offers a platform of convergence for policymakers, activists, non-profits, philanthropists, and corporations, encouraging them to network and collaborate with each other. The entries are shortlisted and selected by an esteemed jury members.
