Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer bags Non-Profit for the Year 2020
New Delhi: In recognition of the yeomen service done for transforming the lives of persons battling cancer and raising the bar of cancer care by implementing many innovative programs with missionary zeal Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer was conferred the award for being the Non-Profit for the Year 2020 at the recently concluded annual Grant Thorton – SABERA Awards 2020.
A a non-profit organization, Sanjeevani – Life Beyond Cancer, works in the core areas Health, Skill Development and Awareness through 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, after her personal tryst with Triple Negative (Stage 3) Breast Cancer. The emotional and physical pain, as well as the financial stress of battling cancer, prompted Ruby to begin a new chapter in her own Life – Beyond Cancer. She set up Sanjeevani… Life Beyond Cancer, 2012, 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.
“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.” Says Ruby Ahluwalia, Founder Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer.
Inspired by Ruby’s vision and commitment to the cause and the guidance of a vibrant Board of Advisors, Sanjeevani has had a phenomenal growth trajectory since inception.
Sanjeevani currently helps patients in 12 Indian states (15 Super specialty hospitals) and has enriched the lives of over 2,50,000 patients in eight years, since inception, through a dedicated team of 30 caregivers, 30 Faculty Members, over 200 interns and over 100 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 we ran deeper into lockdown. The sessions delivered by experts employs 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.
In fact, ICICI Lombard recently announced our founder, Ruby Ahluwalia as a Lock down Hero for her commendable work with underprivileged cancer patients.
Apart from the extensive on – groundwork work across geographies, with this ‘new normal’ of going virtual, Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer pumped up its outreach by leveraging digital and social media to propagate the following amongst masses. Over 400 programs have being held in past 6 months to educate communities on:
· Immunity building
· Importance of leading a Healthy Lifestyle and cancer prevention.
“I sincerely thank SABERA and the CSR times for these awards. They encourage me and my and my team. This appreciation instils hope and faith in us. It makes us believe that we are on the right path.” Says Ruby Ahluwalia founder, Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer.