“One day at a time, one step at a time. Do what you can, do your best. Let God handle the rest.” ~ Michelle Jones. |
Once cancer happens, it changes the way you live for the rest of your life. But, with the people you love and support standing beside you, there is always hope for a happy future. Team Ashvattha is always willing and ready to be a small ray of light in the lives of such people fighting the cancer demon. Prasad and Lalitha are elderly couple who were school teachers. Lalitha is suffering from breast cancer. She had surgery done and is taking post surgery medication which includes chemotherapy at MNJ Cancer Hospital. As it is a government hospital they were able to manage the expenses for most part. However, they still need some financial help with the post surgery medication and the remaining 6 chemos. The couple doesn’t have any children to take care of them, so they are looking for some help. One of our volunteers spoke to both Prasad and Lalitha to get the details. Team Ashvattha donated Rs.20,000 to help with Lalitha’s medication. We hope Lalitha recovers soon to live a happy life with her husband. Thank you donors and volunteers for your help! |
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October 2020 Update 2
“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws” ~ Barbara Kingsolver. |
The struggle that parents go through to save their children just cannot be explained in words. And, a mother’s pain is unimaginable. It is her strength and hope that gives life to a child. Here is a heart melting story of a mother who is trying to save her newborn twins. After a long wait Sachin and Deepali were going to be parents and were very excited to welcome a new member to their family. To their pleasant surprise the doctor said they are going to have twins and they were really happy. However, throughout the pregnancy Deepali had several issues. She was admitted to the hospital thrice and she lost a lot of blood. The pandemic made it even more difficult to find hospitals and they even had to travel to Mumbai to get her admitted. And, at the time of delivery her uterus was infected and she needed an emergency C-section as the infection had reached the babies lungs. The babies were born with lung infection and were struggling to breathe with their weak lungs. The doctors are trying their best every single day to cure the babies. The family is doing everything possible to bring the babies home healthily and start living with them. But, they were zapped with the hospital bills and the treatment cost about 40 lakhs. They spent the last rupee they own and used all the help they can. One of the donors of Ashvattha referred this request to us and our volunteers talked to Deepali. She broke into tears while explaining their situation. It was heartbreaking to listen to her pain. Team Ashvattha donated an amount of Rs.50,000 to help save the twin babies. We recently heard from Deepali that one of the twin babies has recovered and is home. The family is very happy to welcome the baby home and hoping the other twin also will recover soon. The parents thanked Team Ashvattha for all the help. Let’s pray for the speedy recovery of the second twin as well. Thank you for all the donors of Ashvattha for being a great help for this family! |
October 2020 Update
“And sometimes, against all odds, against all logic, we still hope.” ~ unknown |
Life is unpredictable. It throws different puzzles and problems at us each and every day and we struggle to solve them by gathering all the strength day after day. Sometimes, it takes more than strength, more than courage to face it. It is ‘hope’ that we need to push ourselves a little bit more each day. Here is the story of Naveen who is fighting with that hope each day. Naveen was first admitted to Renee hospital (Karimnagar) with the symptoms of high fever and severe hair fall back in Dec 2019. He was also finding it difficult to swallow food with throat pain. So the doctor has done USG for the neck and identified some lymph nodes. He was immediately admitted to Yashoda Hospitals Secunderabad where further diagnosis was done and it was identified that Naveen was suffering from Castleman disease with lupus (Autoimmune disease). Naveen’s wife, Bhavani, was the only breadwinner in their family and had no other financial support to help with Naveen’s treatment and medication. They used all the insurance money and their savings. Doctors suggested 2 chemos sessions which cost around 1 lakh per chemo. Later Naveen had more issues like blurry vision and loss of consciousness. He has to consult a Neuro Physician to undergo more tests. They spent almost 6 lakhs just for the diagnosis and tests. He was taking treatment at the NIMS hospital and needed help with chemos and further treatment. They reached out to help from charity organizations, at last. A volunteer from Team Ashvattha was able to visit Naveen and his wife at NIMS Hospital to get more details on his current state and donated a check of Rs.30,000. We hope that Naveen is recovering now and the family is coping up with the emotional and financial stress. They thanked all the donors of Ashvattha for coming forward to help them! |
September 2020 Update
“Never let the things you cannot do prevent you from doing the things you can.” ~ Coach John Wooden. |
Yes, we may be confined to our houses, not to meet others, not to travel and many more things. But, no one can stop us from talking to our loved ones, providing emotional support to friends and family, making someone smile with a little help. Team Ashvattha is constantly trying to do that little help to make people smile. A couple of requests came to Ashvattha to help little babies fight for their life within days after they were born. All we could do is provide a little financial help and say some kind words to their families. That was enough to make them stay strong during the tough times they are facing. It was heart melting to see the pictures of these babies on the hospital bed. We hope and pray they recover soon to spend a happy life. Request 1: Shaivi, a 2-months old baby is suffering from Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH)/ Cerebral Bleed. She was being treated at Prathima Children’s Hospital, Kompally. The treatment cost more than 10 Lakhs and the family has done all it can to collect that amount. They reached out to all possible sources and one of our volunteers brought this request to Ashvattha. We reached out to the baby’s family to get the details. Knowing their condition we donated a check of Rs.40,000 to help with the expenses. |
Request 2: Another baby boy, son of Naveen and Swathi, who was just 2 weeks old was diagnosed to have heart problems and needed a heart surgery. He was being treated at the Rainbow Hospital, LB Nagar. Baby’s Parents are from a poor background and are desperately looking for help to save their just born baby. Our volunteers got in touch with the family and donated an amount of Rs.40,000. Team Ashvattha followed up after the surgery. The family notified that the baby was on a ventilator but is recovering. That is good news. |
August 2020 Update
“We have a responsibility to help those around us and help others in need” ~ Virginia Williams |
In these crucial times we have the need to prove that humanity is still alive. People are just not in the need of financial support, but also emotional and moral support. Team Ashvattha is trying it’s best, amidst the pandemic, to provide financial and moral support to the people who come for help. Thank you donors and volunteers for driving the organization in these dangerous times. Proud to have you as part of Ashvattha. Received a request from our volunteer to help Rajeshwar, Age 65 years, who is suffering from a chest problem. He was diagnosed with bilateral multiple predominantly peripheral, posterior airspace densities – Ground glass opacities, consolidation, crazy paving pattern, sub pleural bands. Involvement of upper, middle/lingular and lower lobes bilaterally. With a lot of effort and help he was admitted to Delta hospital in Hasthinapuram, Hyd. It cost him about 40k per day and coming from an agricultural background his family was not able to bear the hospital expenses. Team Ashvattha reached out to the family and donated a check of Rs.40,000 to Rajeshwar’s wife. We hope Rajeshwar recovers soon and stays healthy! |
June & July 2020 Update
“Stop the spread, Stay home!” |
Last few months have been the greatest test for humanity. We all stayed locked in our homes for greater good, most of the people lost their jobs, lost their homes, traveled thousands of miles barefoot to reach their families and many lost their lives. It was unfortunate and painful to just watch and do nothing about our loved ones suffering. COVID not just shook the roots of humanity, it asked us to stop running this blind race for a moment and rethink the whole purpose of this life. Stay home, take this opportunity to spend time with your family and take care of them. Give moral support to all your friends and family who need it the most in these tough times. Team Ashvattha is trying to do its best in this situation to help people in need. As you all know we did basic and essential food items donation to the migration workers. We donated to the PM relief fund. Some of our volunteers even came forward and donated masks for the homeless and the poor. We were able to continue to help the people in need, as the need for help is much more in these hard times. We worked on multiple requests in the past couple of months. Below are the details. Mask Donation: Request 1: Helped Raju Reddy, age 33, a farmer by occupation and works as a daily labour in Ramanthapur, Uppal. In an emergency situation he was admitted into ICU at Sunrise Hospitals. Diagnosed as Rodenticide Poison and K/C/O Seizures Disorder, he needed 4 Lakhs for the treatment. The request to help Raju came from an Ashvattha Volunteer and the team was able to step forward immediately and donate a check of Rs.25,000. The check was donated to one of the family members. Few masks were also donated to the person who received the check, so he can distribute them to the family members and their co-laborers. Later, we came to hear that Raju was discharged from hospital and recuperating at home. He and his family members thanked everyone at Ashvattha for the timely help. Request 2: We received a request to help a poor lady, about 60 years old, a resident of Kothagudem, who had to undergo a surgery to remove her Uterus. She is a widow and her only son works as a daily labor. Due to the current COVID situation, the hospitals were not accepting Arogyasri and so she couldn’t afford the surgery herself. Our volunteers brought this request to Team Ashvattha and we were able to donate an amount of Rs.15,000. Hope she recovers soon. Request 3: Lavanya, 31 years female from Karimnagar, was suffering from severe abdominal pain, fever and cough. She was admitted in Global Multispeciality Hospital and was diagnosed with Bilateral Renel Calculus – Bilateral URSL with DJ stenting done. The problem was related to Uterus, Kidney and bladder. Her husband works as a daily labourer and couldn’t afford the cost of surgery or treatment. Family and friends helped her financially with the surgery expenses, but now she is facing post-surgery complications and has to visit hospital every week. They were looking for help as they couldn’t afford the expenses. One of the volunteers brought this request to Ashvattha and we were able to donate her with a check of Rs.30,000. Hope she recovers soon and stays healthy. Amidst, all this chaos, Ashvattha is able to move forward only because of you generous donors and committed volunteers. Thank you all for staying with us in these hard times. Stay home and stay safe! |
Contribution to migrated workers during lock-down
“Stay home. Stay safe. Save lives!” |
Hope all you are staying home and safe! While a section of the world population is trying to figure out how to adjust to this new normal, there is a whole another section of people for whom things turned up side down just in a matter of days. The daily workers have no means to feed their families, the migrated laborers have no way to reach out to their families and homeless people are probably starving without food and shelter. Corona virus has changed and is continuing to change our lives in the most unexpected ways. It is challenging the humanity to face our fears and fight stronger each day. It is our turn to prove that we have the strength to fight it. There is no better time than now, to prove that we are there for each other, we care of each other, we are responsible for each other and more than anything to prove that we are humans who understand the term HUMANITY! A big salute for all the doctors, nurses, essential workers who are fighting this battle on the front lines. Team Ashvattha is trying to do its part in giving a small hope for the humanity and showing that no one is alone in this battle. To start with, we have donated Rs.70,000 to PM relief fund. Also, In this quarantine and lock-down period, the team managed to pull together and achieve the huge task of donating some basic food items to the migrated workers in rural areas near Palavancha in Kothagudem, Badrardi district. Three different villages Chatakonda, Sativarigudem, Thokugudem were identified by the team to provide some help. Our volunteer team lead by Ramesh put a great effort in collecting the list of families that need help and came up with a plan to execute with great care, responsibility and legal support. Packets of rice, dal, onions, tamarind, chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, soaps and biscuits were distributed to about 250 families of migrated workers in these 3 different villages which costed about Rs.1,80,000. This event was organized with utmost care, keeping in mind the social distancing rules, safety of the volunteers doing this donation and all the people who attended the donation program. A big thank you to Ramesh and all the volunteers who took time and risk in this pandemic to make this event possible. Thank you for all the donors for coming forward in very short time to make this possible. We are in this together and we will all fight this together. |
Happy 7th Anniversary
“Thank you for being a part of Ashvattha! Happy 7th Anniversary” |
Achievements of any organization are the results of the combined effort of each and every individual who works for it. Ashvattha is now 7 years old and it definitely is your effort that kept us going all these years. We are proud to say that the YOU – the members, donors and volunteers of Ashvattha are the reason for all the achievements we had in these 7 years. All the donations we made to help with education, health and well-being of the underprivileged, are possible only because of you. We hope and wish the happiness that we added in these people’s lives reflects back into your lives. Team Ashvattha sincerely thanks all of you for travelling with us and helping us move forward in this amazing journey. We look forward to doing much more in the coming years and we hope your support will remain with us. A very happy Anniversary to Team Ashvattha! Thank you all members, donors and volunteers of Ashvattha for making a difference in the world! |
January 2020 Update
“Helping others, without expecting anything in return is what true self-worth is about” ~ Gaving Bird |
This is the story of another young kid who is a victim of cancer. Nithin is a 13 year old, from Lakkampally, Nadhipet Mandal. He is the only son of Gangasailu and Godavari who comes from a very poor background. One day he suddenly had a sever fever and was admitted to a nearby hospital immediately. After many tests he was diagnosed with blood cancer and the cost of treatment was estimated to 20 Lakhs. As the family is not in a state to pay for such high expenses and they had to reach out to many non-profit organizations outside to help them. Ashvattha also came to know about this from one the volunteers and our team members visited the family at Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Hyderabad. We talked to Godavari, Nithin’s mother, who is taking care of her son staying in hospital for about 6 months now. She is very grateful for all the people coming forward to help her son. The doctors are performing chemotherapy but it is a long process which takes a lot of patience, energy and cost. Specially, it was very difficult as Nithin was having some digestion problems and he couldn’t eat enough to withstand the process of chemotherapy. It was very disheartening to see Nithin lay on bed helpless, at this very young age. We feel really sorry for Nithin and his family who has to go through these tiring process. From Ashvattha, we donated a check of Rs.25,000. We sincerely pray and hope that Nithin recovers soon to continue his schooling and education. A big Thank you for all the Donors and Volunteers for coming forward to help Nithin! |
December 2019 Update
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” ~ Mary Anne Radmacher |
Cancer is a disease that needs this kind of courage. It is a long battle to fight day after day, again and again with the same hope. It needs a lot of patience, strength and more than any thing a strong will be to alive, to fight back and to never give up. Dharani Kumar is one such soul fighting this hard battle at a very young age. Dharani, a 30 year old, from Rajahmundry is suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukamia (Blood Cancer). He was initially diagnosed for Dengue Fever due to low platelet count, but as the platelet count was not improving the doctors conducted a bone marrow test in which they confirmed it is cancer. He was admitted in CMC Hospital, Vellore, for Chemotherapy and to undergo a Bone Marrow Transplant. The family has already spent around 20 Lakhs for the treatment and needs much more for the Bone Marrow Transplant. One of our regular donors brought this to our attention seeking help. With our volunteers help we are able to reach out to the family in Vellore and hand over a check of Rs.25,000 to Dharani’s father. We sincerely pray for Dharani to gain that strength and courage to fight back the monsters cancer and with great hope wish for him to win this battle. Thank you Donors and Volunteers for helping Dharani! |