The 13 years of Sankalp India Foundation

"For when the One Great Scorer Comes to mark against your name, He writes–not that you won or lost, But how you played the Game"

This is part of a famous poem that reminds one to work towards a goal with fairness in approach and honesty in the mind and actions. This is a constant journey. Beyond this victory or defeat is only a temporary station. Those words sum up the 13 years of Sankalp India Foundation. As a team we have tasted several victories and losses, but held nerve to not give up on the honest and fair way of doing things . At 13 years of existence Sankalp may not have the highest number of units collected or have the most transplants done or the have the highest number of children under care in the thalassemia day care centre, but each donor in the drive, each family going through the process of transplant and each child in the day care is given the best in class service and care.

Every Revolution in the world took birth in adversity. Ours is no exception. Most successful revolutions in the world went through tough tests. We've had our share of moments where we had to walk on fire. Most revolutions however faded away with time. Some sustained long enough to force a change. Our revolution is still a child. At 13, the revolution enters adolescence. We believe we are on the road to a change. Giving Life A Better Chance is now an everyday activity. That's what people have known the organization for.

Our Driving Forces

For the team, the organization is an opportunity to answer a call from within. It is an honor to be of service to our land of birth. It is an opportunity to do our bit in strengthening our nation. It has always been a question mark at Sankalp whether an anniversary is a celebration of things in the past year or a precursor to things coming up in the next. By nature's design, the date of the anniversary falls in the month after the one in which the Indian financial year kicks off. Therefore the belief within the core team is that the anniversary is like an annual review of the core work plans for the major projects. Major policy decisions and change in structures are discussed and put into force here. The anniversary for the team begins at least a month before the main event with intense review and planning. The main event in itself is to realize them and put them out in front of the people who have stood by us and supported us over the years.

Coming to the support, the love, admiration and blessings of people has been overwhelming. How else can an organization manage 9000 blood requests, collect 12,500 units of blood, take care of 500 children and provide cure to 17 through BMT in the past year with a not more than 15 regular people on board? Each donor who donated, each blood bank who teamed up, each patient family who believed in us, each child in our centres , each advisor who guides us are our pillars of strength. Special mention has to be made about the financial contributors. They have believed in our story of change and have extended their hand of support. The fact that we continue to grow even in our 14th year is because there are many who want to see us grow. There are plenty of them who play their little part here and there. Through this anniversary message we want to deliver our thanks to each one of them.

Another desire that has driven us is to learn and do things with utmost quality. Failure has been a great teacher. It has taught us what not to do. We've learnt things the hard way and cannot imagine work without quality output. In healthcare quality must come as a by product of care and service. Unfortunately its not so much the case in our nation. Quality is something that each one at Sankalp believes in. Quality is no accident. It is a never ending search for a better way of doing things and achieving better results. Being engineers we have put our faith in technology to help us achieve quality. A sound culture of reporting and analysis of data has been imbibed. If there's one thing we would want to be known for wherever there is a mention of us is that we would never compromise on quality.

What does the future behold?

Someone from within asked a question - how do we sustain this momentum going further? What's the strategy for growth? Someone even pointed out that we are no longer a youth organization. We are youth at heart and in our thoughts and actions. Like the theory of human evolution, hopefully the theory of Sankalp will announce itself some day. The almighty has been kind to give us answers to difficult questions without much delay. This answer too shall come. While an answer to that question is not in a final shape at the moment, the ambience for the same is building up. 13 years have gone by like the wind. There will be many more to come.

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