Pratyush Kumar: Putting social media and technology to good use
Intent on effecting sustainable
change, Pratyush Kumar used his managerial skills to draw up a phased plan to
revamp children’s healthcare
It
was a single ping—“Girl from Ranchi requires heart surgery, needs to see a
specialist in Delhi”—on WhatsApp that set the ball rolling for Pratyush Kumar,
founder and chief executive officer of New Delhi Children’s Hospital and
Research Centre (NDCHRC), a healthcare non-profit.
In
September, Kumar reached out to Dr Dinesh Chandra, associate consultant at
Medanta-The Medicity Hospital in Gurugram, who provided the 20-year-old tribal
girl (name withheld) pro bono treatment that included waiving the echo test
charges. Kumar is thankful for Dr Chandra’s quick response, especially
considering they had only interacted on LinkedIn.
Today,
Kumar simply conducts a search on LinkedIn or pings one of his WhatsApp groups
and finds
help at hand. The 40-year-old financial tech professional from Delhi
is amazed at how willing people are to step forward. “Everyone is hungry for
change. All they need is for someone to take the initiative and they’re happy
to participate,” he says.
Intent
on effecting sustainable change, Kumar used his managerial skills to draw up a
phased plan to revamp children’s healthcare. It starts small, with online
consultations and health camps, which is where they are at now. Eventually,
Kumar intends to set up of a full-fledged paediatric hospital.
As
a non-medical professional with virtually no contacts in the fraternity,
setting up a pro bono healthcare system ought to have been an uphill task. But
Kumar’s expertise gave him an advantage. In April 2016, he kicked off a
campaign to solicit volunteers on his Facebook page. Within a week, 50 people
had signed up. “None of them were doctors,” he says. Soon after, NDCHRC was
registered as a trust and its social media pages and WhatsApp group were set
up.
These
digital platforms remain a primary interface. “Of the 250 people who work with
us today, only three-four were known to me personally. Rest all came on board
via social media,” says Kumar of the volunteers, aged between 25 and 44.
Nameesha
Verma, a 44-year-old Gurugram resident and former teacher, read about NDCHRC on
Facebook. “As an educator, the betterment of children is a cause close to my
heart. I’ve been collecting toys and books for NDCHRC for a year now,” she
says.
After
organizing a few mobile health camps, Kumar and his team set up a children’s
clinic in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, in April. It is run on a nominal (and optional)
Rs100 charge and is manned, on rotation, by about 20 doctors. To reach out to
doctors, Kumar began building the NDCHRC brand on LinkedIn, publishing blogs
and sharing relevant articles.
“I
sent out LinkedIn invites on a case-to-case basis,” he says. Today he has a
WhatsApp group of 50 medical professionals, including about 30 doctors in the
US, UK, Australia and Canada. Over the last year, Kumar says NDCHRC has helped
around 2,000 children.
While
social media has made it easier to enlist help, technology plays an even bigger
role in enhancing NDCHRC’s operations. For instance, data gathered at mobile
camps is analysed to determine locality-specific problems. “After one camp, we
realized that half the children are malnourished so now we have a nutritionist
visiting our clinic every Sunday,” says Kumar.
They
are also crowdsourcing funds for high-cost treatments. Naval officer Lieutenant
Commander Mukesh Bhandari, 35, heard about NDCHRC through a WhatsApp forward
and contacted Kumar for his neighbour’s son’s cancer treatment. “NDCHRC shared
the story on crowdfunding site Milaap and we raised the money within 15-20
days,” says Bhandari.
Lessons to make giving more engaging
“Compared
to Western countries, we’re not that forward about making donations, unless
it’s for a religious cause,” says Kumar, who believes there needs to be an
attitudinal change.
Also,
giving back shouldn’t be restricted to the underprivileged. “Our initiative is
not restricted to poor patients; I want everyone to experience the benefits of
our services because that will encourage them to donate,” he says.
Lastly,
we need to build a culture of giving back within our corporate culture. “When
organizations start looking at how you are contributing to CSR (corporate
social responsibility) initiatives or what social work you’ve done in school or
college, people will automatically get on board because it adds value to their
personal brand,” he explains.
Source | Mint | 5th October 2017
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
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