A jeweller, a stove dealer and a broker to adopt poor diabetics of AIIMS

A jeweller, a stove dealer and a broker to adopt poor diabetics of AIIMS
Sreelatha Menon

New Delhi, November 21: A handful of Delhiites have come forward to adopt 33 poor patients of All India Insitutue of Medical Sciences suffering from diabetes of the young. Patients with this ailment need daily insulin injections which cost them at least Rs 300 a month.

Many families cannot bear this additional burden and often skip injections driving young patients as young as three years old to a critical condition.

The `adopt a young diabetic' plan was conceived by Dr N.Kochupillai head ofthe department of Endocrinology in ALl India Institute of Medical Sciences this month and he suggested it to Sudarshan Agarwal member of the National Human Rights Commisssion. The flow of offers from philanthropists started almost immediately. The first offer coming from Agarwal himself who has adopted five patients. Agarwal then approached two friends of his Kishor Jhaveri owner of the famous jewellery shop and Vinod Agarwal businessman from Malkaganj.

For both persons, young insulin dependent diabetics who cannot eat sweets and would die without daily injections, was news.

Both volunteered to adopt ten patients each.

``I would not have known about them had I not been informed,'' said Jhaveri.

Some donors have developed an attachment for the patients and would like to meet and know them. ``I met a few of them at the diabetes day but I would like to meet all the beneficiaries,'' says Vinod Agarwal who sells gas stoves and also represents the Prithviraj Charitable Trust which was formed after his father's death.

Other donors are Sujata Prasad financial advisor AIIMS, Jeevan Reddy chairman Law Commission.

Stock broker and financier A.K.Agarwal also wants to adopt ten patients but has a condition: ``I would help them provided I am told their names and addresses. I will not be part of a blind offering.''

It will not be a blind affair anyway. The institute has decided to have a web site for the adopption programme soon. ``It will have the names and addresses of the beneficiaries as well as donors,'' says Kochupillai.

He said that the money would go into a poor fund for the young destitute diabetes patients administered by AIIMS director himself.

The fund would be audited by the insititute audit section and the balance sheeet will be sent to donors, he said.

The donors have so far not been asked to pay for the patients. Kochupillai said that he had been waiting for plans to finalise and now he was ready to approach the donors for a cheque for one year.

``At present there are 1,200 porsons registered as patients of diabetes of the young and half of them are destititues. The insitutue had been able to provide insulin only once in a while,'' says Kochupillai.

Vinod Agarwal considers the programme merely God's grace. There are at least two crore such patients who are insulin dependent. Just as these handful of AIIMS patients have found help by God's grace, let us hope the others also will find help.