Hearts Behind The Foundation

Interacting with children who have received a treatment makes me feel really happy

I was soaked in my dreams
Dreams that take me to a world of equity
Dreams that take me to world of empathy
Place where all feel for all
And none has to fall

I wish this dream to go on and on
To see what this world grows into
To see what I wish to see
And I deny waking up from this dream
For I wish to scream, see this place my happy place

But then the rays wake me up and say,
Go make a world that you wish to see
Full of love and equity

We all must have come across this feeling at least once in our lifetime where we struggle to find an answer to what we really want. No matter how well-informed choices we make, calculations do not guarantee satisfaction and happiness. But today I really want to say that that it’s never too late to live your dream, to follow your passion. We all are often bound by many stereotypes and preconceived notions that hinder our vision to experience reality. Yes, reality! Which at times is so different, so overwhelming and many a times an eye opener.

I want to give back to society

Genesis Foundation, an NGO near me, has given me this opportunity to narrate my story through “Hearts Behind the Foundation”. Since Childhood, engaging with people, taking -up challenging tasks, seeking people-oriented solutions has driven me. But life had its own plan and despite being interested in humanities I grew into an accidental engineer. I graduated as software engineer with flying colors and got campus placement as a Software Engineer in one of the leading MNCs. Everyone around me was really happy and thought that I have got a good kickstart in my career and just needed to grow in it. Though I felt accomplished in a sense of doing justice to my degree but deep inside, I felt that I did not belong to that 4*4 cubicle.

I was performing but yet lacking. It was just a year or so when one fine day I asked my dad that I want to work to serve people and hence I want to prepare for civil services. I left my job and spent 4.5 years preparing for it with partial successful attempts. The journey of preparation taught me a lot of things-patience, tolerance, being grateful and realizing how privileged I am and that I must give back to the society from what I have. I learnt that serving people could have many forms and I feel that working for people-centric solutions for people’s problem is one of the best ways to utilize your knowledge.

I was convinced that I wanted to start from grassroot level. Delhi has been my comfort zone as I have spent most of my time here and thus decided to choose a challenging geography where I could learn to work at grassroot level, understand the challenges and how to work towards local solutions for local problems and scale them up. I worked in the interior areas of Jharkhand for three years on issues of Maternal and Child Health and worked with frontline workers with wide ranging experience of working with communities and working for people-centric solutions. Packing my learnings and experiences from there, I headed to Delhi, to contribute in an area that needs focus. My hunt ended when I came across an NGO near me, Genesis Foundation an NGO providing free heart surgery for poor in India. This domain interested me as I was not much aware about the incidence of congenital heart defects (CHD) and its awareness among people. I learnt about the story of the Founder Trustees and the vision they had for the children with CHD. I could instantly connect as it was so relatable to work for cause that you feel for.

Doing a background check before my first screening camp I attended in Bathinda

The more I read about Genesis Foundation, I learnt that it is one of the best charity organization working for clinical intervention of children suffering from congenital heart defects. I felt that, I could definitely learn a lot more about CHD and also add value to the work that the foundation is doing.

I feel fortunate and thankful to the Foundation which had shown faith in my capabilities and made me part of the Genesis Foundation family. Here, I continue to live the dream of experiencing a world of equity, where all are equal and have every right to access quality healthcare. Being an integral part of a process that provides free heart surgery for poor in India makes me feel satiated that in a small way I able to be a part of a larger cause. Genesis Foundation breathlessly works to provide timely intervention and care for children suffering from CHD irrespective of their caste, religion, gender or place. The only idea that drives GF is to ‘Save Little Hearts’ and dreams of a place where no child with CHD dies due to lack of awareness or funds.

You too can be a part of this mission. To know more about how you can join the Foundation write to us at [email protected]