26/11 – Two years and counting.

It has been two years since five terrorists ripped into our city's peace creating havoc, despair and a sense of vulnerability nothing has been able to restore.

It has also been two years since a group of shaken up, but determined women (and a couple of men) set out to address the unease inside them, the angst and desperation of wanting to reach out, met in a coffee shop. It has been two years since they embarked on a journey of help and support, and came together to from India Helps.

India Helps is not an organization, it isn't a company and it isn't a professionally managed Not For Profit. It is a part of each and every one of the people present in that first meeting, and those that joined after. India Helps has a heart, and soul. It has ethics and morals. It is a reflection of all the hard work that's been put into creating it. Reaching out to victims, fund raising, managing professional and personal lives and most of all, dealing with our own feelings and trying not to be overwhelmed with the victims trauma are just some examples of the work that's gone into India Helps.

India Helps has grown. Where we started with a few 26/11 victims, we now raise funds for pavement schools, teaching over 200 underprivileged children with limited or no access to education.

As we mourn the loss of family, friends and other victims of the attacks, we also in a small, muted way celebrate the strength with which India Helps moves into 2011. Eveready and Energized to go. With renewed faith we await new avenues of reaching out to people.

We'd like to thank all those of you who follow our blog, write in to us, have sent us funds. India Helps would not have sustained such active fundraising if it hadn't been for benevolence such as the kind we've received from you all. Thank you, truly.

 

By Suma Nagmote on behalf of Team India Helps

SaveLIFE Foundation

This very interesting forward from Chandni. If you are interested in participating/contributing, please contact Piyush Tewari directly.

 

 

From: Piyush Tewari (SLF) <piyushtewari@savelifefoundation.org>
To: chandni_parekh@yahoo.com
Sent: Wed, November 17, 2010
Subject: From SaveLIFE Foundation

Dear Chandni,

First off, thank you for spreading the word about SaveLIFE Foundation. I wanted to connect with you to tell you more about SLF and seek your help in raising some funds for our work. Here's a quick introduction to what we do - 

SaveLIFE Foundation

SaveLIFE Foundation is a public charitable trust registered under sections 12AA and 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. As you are perhaps aware, India has the dubious distinction of being world no. 1 in road accident deaths. Every 4 minutes someone loses their life in a road accident somewhere in India. A major reason of such a high number of deaths is that almost 80% victims are unable to achieve access to any care within the first hour of the accident, often called the Golden Hour. Bystanders merely serve as spectators and Police is largely apathetic and untrained to handle the injured. It is a known medical fact that if bleeding can be controlled in time or CPR administered within 15 mins of the pulse stopping, hundreds of lives, which are otherwise lost, can be saved.

Our objective, therefore, is: 1) To train Police to save road accident victims as they are in most cases the first official agency to respond; this training develops the skill-base as well as the emotional quotient of Police officers dealing with road victims, and 2) To train & connect common citizens to help road accident victims. The idea is also to work with the government to create legal and ethical standards for common people to feel free to help road victims. The video on this page will give you more information about what and how we do this: http://young.rolexawards.com/laureates/piyush_tewari. If you like i'll be happy to call you and explain our work in more detail.

Given that we provide this training for free (and there's a well thought-out reason behind that), we have exhausted almost all of our available funds and are struggling to continue training the Police in Delhi. I am therefore contacting several people for help. Each training session caters to 50 police officers and costs us Rs. 5,000 at the very least. In order to complete the training of remaining Police officers we need to raise Rs. 100,000. Given that we are registered under Section 80G of IT Act, donors will get income tax benefit, and on our part we will provide complete details including pictures, names, belt numbers and zones of the Police officers being trained.

Any help from you will be greatly appreciated.

Let me know if you need more information.

Regards,
Piyush
 

--
Piyush Tewari
Founder & President
SaveLIFE Foundation, &
2010 Rolex Young Laureate

Off: 15/2, 1st Floor, East Patel Nagar, N. Delhi-08
Tel: +91 981 816 8116
www.savelifefoundation.org
young.rolexawards.com

SLF|Enabling Bystander Care for Road Accident Victims

Help these children

This from Chandni's blog:

 

 

From: saveachildtrust saveachildtrust <saveachildtrust.spine@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Oct 23, 2010
Subject: Request for Support-"you can change a life"

Dear Sir/Madam

Sub:  Request for Support-"you can change a life"

 

Greetings from Save a Child Trust (SACT)

 

Save A Child Trust (SACT) is a non-profit humanitarian institution started by Dr Kirti Jain (Chairman and Managing Director-GBH American Hospital) and Dr Chirayu Pamecha (Co-Founder SACT, and Spine Surgeon GBH American Hospital) in association with GBH American Hospital, Udaipur.

 

This project was started in July 2008 to help children from economically weaker sections with spinal deformities irrespective of their gender, religion, caste or color.

 

SACT in collaboration with GBH American Hospital Udaipur treats the poor children at a highly subsidized cost. While the Scoliosis correction surgery in a normal hospital costs around Rs4 to 5lakhs, we under our initiative get it done for Rs 2.0to 2.5lakhs.  This amount covers hospitalization, regardless the length of stay for the youngster which is borne by GBH American Hospital and other chargers such as surgery and implant costs, other medical needs, teaching programs and administration, which are raised by SACT from external sources.

 

In this regard, we hope to collaborate with different institutions/individuals which can support us in our endeavors and become a part of our mission.

 

As per your requirement please find enclosed the details.

 

SACT full Contact details: 

Contact person:  Ms.  Shilpa Jaiswal                      Dr.  Chirayu Pamecha

                           Program Manager                        Co-founder SACT, Spine Surgeon

 

Address:  Save a Child Trust

GBH American Hospital

101, Kothi Bagh, Bhatt Ji Ki Bari,

Meera Girls College Road,

Udaipur-313001 (Raj.)

Phone:     +91 294-3056700, 3056000

Fax:           +91 294-2526982

Mobile :    +91 9694656268/9829053531

Email : saveachildtrust.spine@gmail.com, 

Website : www.saveachildtrust.org

 

Exact amount needed and by which date:

The demand for our services is overwhelming. Since our inception in July 2008, we have examined over 300 children in our free clinic and operated 6 children with complex spinal deformities like Scoliosis and Kyphosis. Currently, four children are awaiting treatment/surgrery and SACT is making all efforts to raise necessary funds for them. In the future, we plan to operate at least 24 children annually for which we will need substantial funds.

 

Exact amount required for these 4 children is Rs. 8lkhs. 

 

The break up of the surgery cost is as following:

Particulars	Cost (in Rs)
ICU Charges	4,500
Nursing, Physiotherapy Charges	7,500
Pharmacy and Consumables	20,000
Investigations ( Blood Ix, PFT, CT scan, etc)	14,000
OT Charges	19,000
Implants	1,35,000
Total	2,00,000

 

 Till now Rs. 3.8lkhs has been raised through corporate, individual donations, religious charity.  We are short of Rs. 4.2lkhs. 

 

Looking forward to hearing from you, I remain

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Shilpa Jaiswal Bist

Program Manager, SACT

9694656268/7737671454