In India every year approx50000 children are diagnosed with cancer and because most of the population ofthe country is from the low-income group only 22% are able to reach hospitalsfor treatment. It gets even more tragic, most of those children aremalnourished. Now the question here is that ‘is medical intervention aloneenough to fight the deadly disease?’
Purnota Bahl, a Mumbai-basedwoman took matters to her own hand started a non-profit organization to bringfood and nutrition to the underprivileged children fighting cancer since 2011. Her ‘Cuddles foundation’ has collaboratedwith many hospitals and nutritionists including Tata Memorial Centre and AIIMS.Cuddles has reached more the 35000 children till date.
Birth of Cuddles
Purnota was not planning to dosuch a thing, it was one of the life-changing incidents from her life thatmotivated her to take this huge step. Remembering that incident from pastPurnota shared this incident with the better India and said, “I was crossingone of the wards and my eyes fell upon the tiny foot of a baby girl probably a few months old. Although I never got to see her face, her legs reminded me ofmy own daughter who was around the same age at that time. The fact that thechild inside could have been mine was the moment of epiphany which just brokeme emotionally but drove me further to act upon it”.
Overwhelmed with the thought ofit Purnota headed straight to the hospital in charge and asked him about theways she can help such children there she got to know about the hard truth thatthe hospitals receive many funds and donations for treatment but nothing forfood. Following this, she decided there and then to channel all her funds tomeet the nutritional requirements of underprivileged children at Tatamemorial. The funding soon began to overburden her so decided to quit her joband teamed up with some of her friends to launch ‘Cuddles Foundation’ in 2011.
As of now, Cuddles foundationhas become a 100% women-run establishment. The organization has branches in 13cities across the country and collaborations with 22 hospitals.Alumni of Indian School ofBusiness (ISB), Purnota pledged that no child will suffer because their parentscouldn’t afford good food. The thing she did at Tata memorial could have been aone-time help after her funds were running zero but she did not stop and provedthe proverb ‘where there is will there is a way'.
According to Purnota in recentyears, “one can see a steady rise in startups, whose model of operations iscentered on driving social impact. The idea that only retired people engage in philanthropy is a myth weneed to bust by considering the field as a serious career option”.