Real-life struggles against odds and the steely resolve of three changemakers — Pushpa Preeya from Bengaluru; Dr Aparna Deshmukh, Pune; and Rtn Rudra Prasad Mohapatra, Bhubaneswar — to persist with their social service in their communities struck a chord among the delegates at the Tejas Institute in Delhi. Rotary Changemaker Awards were presented to these ‘selfless workers’ in a session moderated by PRID Mahesh Kotbagi.
RI director K P Nagesh, Pushpa Preeya, Uma Nagesh and PRID Mahesh Kotbagi.
Pushpa Preeya: Fondly called akka (elder sister) by her beneficiaries, she is an IT professional and a scribe for visually-impaired students. Till now, she has written 1,500 pro bono exams in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, English and Telugu. Pushpa lost all her family members during Covid, but even in that traumatic phase, “she wrote exams for over 50 blind students.” She works on AI, machine learning, finance and HR, “but on paper I am not educated in a formal sense.”
Dr Aparna Deshmukh: A surgeon by training, Aparna runs Abhalmaya, an old age home and nursing care in Pune. When she saw an elderly woman in a “terrible state with flies and bed sores all over body, sitting in a road corner, I thought how can human beings be so negligent and callous towards sufferings. At that point, I decided to start an old age home. That lady had three sons, but none came forward to help her.”
She also decided not to marry, but to dedicate her entire life for caring the abandoned elders and destitute. First, she started giving medical support to elders at her 1BHK rented home with financial help from her father, and digging into her savings. Over the last 15 years, the 70-bed special home has given free food, accommodation, treatment and medical facility to over 300 elderly people abandoned by their children. Around 2,000 free surgeries were done on those in need, and in some cases, “legal support are extended to elders. But having a sustainable, long-term rented place is a big challenge.” Soon, they will be moving into their 8,000 sqft building at Kirkatwadi, Pune. Both her parents are Rotarians.
Rudra Prasad Mohapatra: A former junior warrant officer at the IAF, after retirement he is committed to humanitarian causes by doing a spate of blood donation camps, distribution of artificial limbs, greening mission, and creating rooftop gardens in and around Bhubaneswar.
His pet theme is ‘giving back to the native place’. In a fervent appeal, he urged everyone to “go back to your village or native land, and do service at least once or one day in a year.” As War Veterans Family district chair (RID 3262), “Mohapatra is a compassionate Rotarian. He has served for two decades at the IAF, flying over 40,000 feet, and now he loves doing Rotary projects at his hometown,” said PRID Kotbagi.