Beyond business: EPGP at IIM B restarts lives

The One year MBA (EPGP) class at Indian Institute of Management (IIM B) says ‘lets do our bit’ and organises two medical camps – one for providing artificial limbs to amputees and the other to treat vision related problems such as cataract. In total 150 people got a new lease of life at the camps.  

By Alok Jain

Nine-year old girl Ayesha has come from Bijapur with her parents to this camp. As she walked back after getting the calipers she was literally running. I saw the glitter of happiness in her eyes. 30-year-old Rajanna from Tumkur who went back with a belief that now he can support his family again. At the eye camp on the other corner, many patients would get treatment for cataract soon and would be able to work.

EPGP students at IIMB started Prayaas: A Social Responsibility Initiative four years ago and its activities are synonymous with its tagline, ‘Let’s do our bit’.  Prayaas organized two medical camps in the institute on 27th Oct 2013. One camp was to provide artificial limbs or the famed Jaipur Foot for amputees and calipers for Polio ridden patients or those with weak limbs. The other was to diagnose and treat eye related ailments ranging from simple vision defects such as refractive problems to cataract and optical nerve damages.

The camp was a major success and attracted participants from people as far as Bellary.

For instance T S Guruprasad, who had lost his limb in an accident two-years back and had come to the camp back for a limb replacement. The story of his will power and the transformation in his life brought about by prosthetic limb were both a source of inspiration to the students as well as other patients.

In all, fifty patients will get benefit from the Jaipur Foot Camp of which 41 were benefited on the spot. The daylong eye camp helped 130 patients of which 26 patients will be treated for cataract and 31 will be provided glasses. The complete cost for the camp and treatment will be borne by Prayaas that is funded primarily by contributions from EPGP students.

Director and Dean (Academic) Professor Devanath Tirupati congratulated the EPGP students for continuing with the tradition and finding ways to expand the volume and scope of its activities in providing help to the needy. The entire IIM B community supported the camp – volunteers came from every program of the Institute. Everyone including Professors, students of EPGP, PGP, FPM, PGPPM, exchange-program, spouses of students, EPGP office and staff, contributed towards making this camp hugely successful. Kajal, the wife of an EPGP student and a physiotherapist, helped lot of people with medical advice.

For Valentin, Alice and Johanna, who are at IIM B on an exchange programme from universities in Europe, this was a unique experience. Alice, student from Italy, was amazed at the scale of camp and said, “It’s good to see people walking on new legs and the way you are putting in efforts to provide this for free to them”.

The joy and satisfaction you get when you bring a smile to someone cannot be expressed through words. You can only experience the joy of seeing people come to the camp on a wheelchair walk back to their home.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Contributing blogger