All posts by Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation

About Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation

The Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation enables non-profit organisations and social entrepreneurs to make a positive, lasting and sustainable impact on society. Inspired by the vision of a socially, culturally and economically vibrant India, the Foundation supports civil society initiatives in sectors such as health, education, livelihoods, governance and civic issues, art and culture and youth and urbanisation. Besides supporting socially and economically challenged communities, it also strives to encourage excellence. Established in 2002 with an endowment from the philanthropist Mr. Narotam Sekhsaria, the Foundation supports socially committed individuals and organisations to work towards the change they want to see. Since its inception, the Foundation has striven towards supporting actions which accelerate that change.

Project

MediKhoj is an attempt to provide useful, unbiased information about health issues and affordable healthcare facilities in the city. The portal aims to act as a responsive platform with vital information on health and healthcare facilities. This platform aims to help people make informed decisions on crucial aspects of healthcare in times of need. It also provides information that’s available, but not easily accessible, on government schemes and grants for patients in need.

This portal will be useful to people across the socio-economic spectrum, as it will allow them to access healthcare at reasonable costs.

Issue

One of the ways to improve the health of the marginalized is to empower them with an easy access to credible and crucial information necessary. Mumbai is a hub for many healthcare facilities but the vital information to access the same is missing. That’s why we used our comprehensive experience of the field to develop MediKhoj: a Mumbai-based patient support portal.

About the organization

Golden Butterflies Children’s Palliative Care Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of underprivileged children suffering from chronic, advanced or incurable diseases, and their families/ caregivers, by providing palliative care, counselling, nutritional support and financial assistance, to avoid unnecessary suffering.

Issue

Child-patients have to compromise a lot of their play time spending months away from their homes for their treatment needs. Also, their accompanying caregivers are usually too physically and emotionally exhausted thus the child-patients, as well as their family/caregivers, are at a particularly vulnerable phase of their lives, and need to be treated with dignity and empathy. Thus, the healthcare professionals need to be trained on these crucial aspects of care while delivering Pediatric Palliative Care

Impact

The support rendered by NSF has allowed many medical professionals to get acclimatized to the practice of palliative care while they continue to fulfil their duties. With best of the authors developing the course and thousands of medical professionals accessing BMJs’ education courses and knowledge portals, the course has paved the way for excellent education in palliative care. About 200 professionals have already benefited by NSF’s initiative in palliative care.