Founded in January 2014 in Delhi, Yoddhas is a social health care organisation which is helping Indians fight against cancer. Founded by Rahul Yadav, who happens to be a MBA graduate from Symbiosis and has an overall work experience of over 7 years, is a cancer patient himself, suffering from Multiple Myeloma. This led him to form Yoddhas, an information sharing and cancer support group. The company is still in its fledgling stage and aims at creating an online support base for patients and relatives of patients suffering from various forms of cancer.
On asking what prompted him to start this noble organisation, Rahul says “A recently married man and at the start of my corporate career, I found myself at loss at the state of awareness about Multiple Myeloma in India. Unlike other cancers, a patient’s life is in the hand of another human, someone she / he has to wait for to register for Bone Marrow Donation. With the lack of information and awareness amongst the general public, these registrations are miniscule and those who know about them are also misguided by common misconceptions. All these factors put together prompted me to provide a platform for sharing of information for the patients and public alike.”
Yodhhas is a completely volunteers driven initiative. These volunteers are from various colleges in India and part time volunteers who are working in various firms and cities. It is a platform for genuine knowledge sharing and has an interface where the patients can directly speak with doctor who can act as a second opinion to them. This is a site not only for patients but also for the public ad caregiver to let them know how they can help. They are not only present online but also on the streets and campuses with their drives and stalls.
Rashi Mandla Yadav (Co-Founder) tells us about their future plans. She says “We have two major goals, the primary and the essential goal is to support the patients battling Cancer. To have patients help each other, it’s a peer to peer support. As at times, the best person to help you with something is someone who has gone already through this on his own or is going through it right now himself. The second major goal is to spread awareness among the general public, specially the youth and also increase awareness about Bone Marrow Registry in India. This part is critical and we have started to reach out to campuses across India. We are also using the social media in a big way and successfully running social campaigns like #YspreadHappiness, aimed at generating awareness for the cause. A lot of young volunteers are also helping in spreading this initiative.”
They have recently won the ‘People's Choice award’ and also the overall Second Prize - Only entry to win 2 awards and were also the only entry to be representing India in this global forum ‘UNESCO Citizen Youth Entrepreneurship Award competition’.
They have teams set up in various campuses in Pune, ‘Symbiosis International University’ Fellows team headed by Rupin & Litty; and New Delhi, Delhi University Fellows team headed by Hitesh & Palak.
Currently Yoddhas has not being partnering with other organizations, but is finding support from companies for campaigning. They also have a crowd funding campaign running to raise some funds for the cause. Visit http://www.next100.org/rahul-yadav/ in case you wish to be a helping hand. They are also open to partnerships.
“To be an entrepreneur, it is essential to believe in your initiative. It becomes a driving force when hurdles come your way and when you are at the verge of giving up. For Entrepreneurs, there are no appraisals, no HR motivation drives, and no boss pushing you to go that extra mile. It is just you, and the stronger your faith is in the business, the stronger your driving force would be at such times. So simply put, take the plunge and go do it” is the message Rahul has for young entrepreneurs, who are willing to turn their adversity into a noble mission of helping others.
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