Touching lives: This NGO provides prosthetics to specially abled children

Delhi-based Bravo Foundation provides ailing children with medical assistance to help them lead a normal life

Fourteen-year-old Sanjid Kumar Aararez’s life took a turn when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. The light went out of his life and all that remained was to survive the ordeal. His worried and helpless family reached out to Bravo Foundation, an organisation that provides ailing children with medical aid to help them lead an independent life. Today, Aararez is on his way to recovery with the hope that he will resume school and play with his friends soon. 

“No child should be deprived of education, because of poor healthcare. That is the mission of our initiative” says Rakesh Pandey, founder of Bravo Foundation. The year-old organisation is based out of New Delhi, organising health seminars in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. It also takes pivotal steps in providing prosthetics to children who are specially abled. 

Currently, they have helped more than 4,000 children who are suffering from cancer and other disabilities. Children across India, Africa, Uzbekistan and Central Asia have benefited from the foundation’s initiatives. “Over the next five years, this initiative will be scaled to provide good healthcare to more than 10,000 children across India. We are targeting children in government schools for healthcare check-ups, which will help us locate more children in several states across the country” Pandey says. 

Bravo Foundation is also supported by Bravo Pharmaceuticals, an organisation dedicated to improve human health and quality of life by providing innovative diagnostics, e-health solutions, personalised treatment, high quality affordable pharmaceuticals and new generation health products.

For a foundation to help with medical aid, costs can be very high. How does Bravo Foundation cater to those challenges? An optimistic Pandey responds that the funds come from different organisations across the globe that are dedicated towards providing better healthcare for children. Further in India, they have tied up with several hospitals and NGOs in different metros as well as tier 2 and 3 cities in order to reach out to children in need. 

“We are a research oriented organisation so some of our teams provide us data of such children who are in severe need of help,” he adds. Some of the foundation’s Indian and global partners are Max Healthcare, Apollo Hospital University College London, Tallinn University of Technology, Oxford Consultancy, MMC Healthcare, RIL chemicals PLC and Science Park Tehnopol. 

Talking about the impact that Bravo Foundation has had in several lives, Pandey reminisces an experience close to his heart. Shivam from Motihari, a district in Bihar, was 12-year-old when he lost his legs in an accident. He had to leave his school and his life had come to a standstill. The foundation assisted him in procuring prosthetic legs and now he is learning to walk again. “These aren’t just his legs but they are his wings now,” Pandey believes. He also talks about Vivek Mishra and Shivam Mishra from Gopalgunj, both brothers suffering from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Bravo Foundation has stepped in providing everything from counselling, medical aid as well as assistance needed to combat and improve their rare condition. 

“India is a country where poor healthcare is impacting education and the quality of life of children. I see immense talent around, which is going waste and hence the idea of Bravo Foundation was propagated in order to help these children and their families,” Pandey says. When asked more about the story behind the inception of the foundation he adds that all his inspirations and incidents are from his own childhood, which was marred by poverty. The story behind the foundation is the hollow space of poverty, hunger and poor healthcare. 

“More than the story there is a need for such foundations across India for the betterment of the quality of living of the children across the country. Life needs to be fulfilling in whatever little or more we have,” concludes Pandey.