From Idea to Innovation: A Teen’s Journey of Turning Passion into Product through Seva

I am deeply enthusiastic about what I pursue. Those who know me will have noticed my profound zeal to pursue my interests to great depth. One of those passions is seva, which is a means for me to create a meaningful impact. More than that, it is an avenue for personal growth: I have improved and evolved as an individual over the years. Now, I hope to extend the impact of my seva with my entrepreneurial drive, a decision that has been inspired by my frequent visits to rural India. This is the story of how I am turning my passion for seva into a solution for scores of souls.

Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital

My impactful journey revolves around the Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital (SRH) in Dharampur, Gujarat, which is 2-hours away from the nearest city of Surat. The hospital is a major service initiative providing world-class healthcare to the hundreds of villages in this rural district of Gujarat. Back in 2022, I had the privilege of visiting SRH as part of a tour. Much like the dozens of visitors on the tour, I was awed by the state-of-the-art facility. The hospital had departments treating every malady or injury possible. There were numerous cutting-edge amenities, from endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography equipment to dialysis machines, and even a cardiac catheterization laboratory!

Sidhumbar Village

During the same trip, I also visited the village of Sidhumbar to renovate their town center. Sidhumbar is a settlement in the Dharampur taluka, home to a few rundown huts and no proper entertainment facilities. With a group of volunteers, I worked to restore the single town center shack into a kids’ library, promoting their fun in education. We also cleared the surrounding dirt area and converted it into a garden and volleyball court. The new center would serve as a place for children and adults alike to gather and enjoy!

Witnessing the underdeveloped and neglected village of Sidhumbar opened my eyes to the plight of rural Indian citizens. This was just one village, and there were thousands more in similar conditions. I thought back to the high quality medical treatment that these same villagers were lucky to receive. Despite this, the comfort provided was unfortunately limited to just the hospital. From comfortable ward beds to rough wooden cots, villagers had to sadly return to a poor quality of life once discharged. This realization shocked me. The inadequate and appalling conditions could hinder discharged patients’ recovery and have terrible repercussions on their wellbeing! Inspired by SRH’s provision of high quality medical care and shocked by the state of rural villages, I decided to bridge the gap.

Voices of Struggle

My resolution to solve some of India’s healthcare issues with technology has been motivated by anecdotes of villagers I have met. The grave predicaments of some of the patients I spoke with at the SRH were shocking to me, a pampered Dubai boy. Actually conversing with people facing these major issues has cultivated greater empathy and a deeper compassion within me. One woman, Geeta, a single working mother in her mid 20s, had been staying in the maternity ward for 8 days, as her year-old son had a severe illness. While her long stay at the hospital was comfortable, Geeta was very stressed about leaving her other two children behind at the village. I was filled with sympathy: Geeta’s unfamiliarity with basic amenities, such as ward beds, was evident as she sat on it backward, feet facing the pillow, as she cradled her baby. Another woman, Kamla, aged 40, was enthusiastically telling me about her job, which required her to commute up a hill every dawn just to clean buildings. Kamla seemed ecstatic to share her life story with someone. The villagers had all accepted their plight, which reinforced my desire to help them all.

Geeta

Kamla

Sajid

I was especially moved by my discussion with one elderly gentleman, Sajid. He was fervently describing how he worked at a small fabric store, spending 8-10 hours a day hunched over a sewing machine. Sajid took pride in his efforts (necessary to earn a basic living wage), which had unfortunately led to him developing severe back defects. Sajid recalled that his father before him had faced the same problem, but had had no solution given the poor facilities of his village. Now, Sajid was hoping to receive spinal treatment at SRH, but was afraid that his condition would come back upon returning to his work routine. As I listened carefully, I pondered his situation, which represented many others. Granted, the facilities of the hospital were great. However, they were unfortunately being undermined by the core problem of Indian villages’ inadequate support and care.

My Proposed Solution

My conversation with the villagers has encouraged me to use my entrepreneurship skills to develop a product to benefit them. I aim to provide post-surgery therapy care for patients to sustain a smooth and healthy recovery in their villages. The product should support patients like the old and injured Sajid after they have been discharged from hospitals. My vision to achieve this is to produce a low-cost medical seat for spinal and lower-back injuries, which can be distributed to hospitals and NGOs across India to provide as a post-surgery rehabilitation aid. I am confident that I can successfully develop such a product as an act of seva, positively impacting local communities across rural India.