Saloni Heart Foundation adopts 5 student of Zindagi Foundation for their complete Medical Studies

Odisha Taza News(March 14 , Sunday ) Bhubaneswar :- California, USA based Saloni Foundation has adopted 5 students of Zindagi Foundation for their entire medical studies. These students are from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds, children of landless farmers, daily labours, vegetable sellers, roadside vendors and most of their families barely managed square meal every day. But despite all the challenges and extreme poverty, these students performed excellently in NEET 2020 and secured seats in the prestigious government medical colleges in Odisha.

Bhubaneswar, Odisha based Zindagi Foundation provides all facilities like medical coaching, food, lodging and study material absolutely free of cost to underprivileged students who want to become doctor. All 19 students of Zindagi Foundation have successfully qualified for NEET 2020 and many of them got admission into prestigious medical colleges. The journey has been really difficult and full of challenges, but in the end the students have achieved their goals.

Among these 5 students is Kshirodini Sahoo from a remote village in Angul, Odisha who scored 657 in NEET and currently studying in SCB Medical College, Cuttack. Her father works as a daily labor in the fields. Subhendu Parida’s parents run a small roadside stall of idli-bada in Bhubaneswar. Subhendu himself worked with his parents to manage a square meal and now he is studing in VSS Medical College, Burla. Debashish Biswal’s father was running a small grocery shop in his village in Kendrapara before he got bedridden because of a brain stroke. Debashish is currently studying in VSS Medical College, Burla. Mrutyunjaya Tripathy’s father performs Puja and depends on meagre income from it for survival of family.

Their home in Puri was completely damaged in Phani cyclone, yet Mrutyunjaya with his hard work got admission in VSS Medical College, Burla. Bruti Sundar Behera lost his father after long illness and family lost all their small savings in the treatment. Yet, with hard work and determination, Bruti got admission in Govt. Medical College, Balangir. All these students have received moral and financial support from Saloni Foundation, USA to continue their medical studies without worrying about financial aspect.

Founder of Zindagi Foundations Ajay Bahadur Singh Said, “These students come from very poor background and their families barely manage to have proper meal every day. We provide them all facilities free of cost and help them to achieve their dream of becoming doctors. But families of these students are not in a position to afford even the nominal fees of government medical colleges. Their happiness converts into sorrow. We approached some NGOs like Saloni Heart Foundation who have taken responsibility to pay tuition fees, hostel fees and other expenses for entire 5 years of medical studies. Also, they have provides top-of-the-line HP laptops to these students absolutely free of cost. We try to help these students to overcome all the challenges in their path of becoming a doctor.”

Further Ajay said that we don’t take any donation from any individual or organisation for one year preparation course of NEET and all the expenses for study material, tuition fees, food, lodging are borne by Zindagi Foundation itself. As these students find it difficult to pay fees of medical colleges, we find NGOs, organisations and individuals who come forward to adopt them and sponsor their medical studies.The scholarship are transferred to the bank accounts of students directly so that there is complete transparency.

Ajay Bahadur Singh himself was a brilliant student and wanted to become a doctor. But due to sudden illness of his father, he had to quit studies and start earning to meet the medical expenses. Although, he could not become doctor, but now he is making doctors by helping underprivileged but deserving students. Saloni Heart Foundation also has a very emotional journey as it was started by Milli and Himanshu Seth after the death of their 13 years old daughter, Saloni in 2018. Their daughter suffered from congenital heart disease and dreamt of becoming a cardio-thoracic surgeon.

The felicitation ceremony was held through a virtual meeting with participation of Ajay Bahadur Singh, Founder – Zindagi Foundation and Director – Adyant Group Of Institutions; Milli Seth and Himanshu Seth, Saloni Heart Foundation, world renowned doctors Dr. V M Reddy, chief of the UCSF Division of Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery and Co-director of the the UCSF Paediatric Heart Centre, USA and chief advisor SHF; Dr. P. Venugopal, Padma Bhushan awardee, Ex-Director & Head of Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, AIIMS and Advisor SHF; Ketan Patel, Managing Director HP India; V G Krishnan , Co-Founder Shiksha Daan, Executive Coach & Trainer; Bindu Krishnan, Co-Founder ShikshaDaan, Executive Coach & Trainer: Ashutosh Burnwal, Founder & Director Buddy4Study; Prashant Pal, Co-Founder & CEO, PURE India Trust besides the foundation’s own board and scholars.