When any member of a family is terminally ill due to a disease like Cancer, the entire family is devastated. The complete focus of the family is the patient and his/her medical support. Due to the expenses involved in medical consultation and medication, the family not only exhausts all the savings, but also ends up with loans and borrowings, typically at very high interest rates.

When this person happens to be the sole breadwinner for the family, then the family is faced with further trouble and uncertainty. The first casualty of this situation is the discontinuation of children’s education, for they can’t afford education or because the children may need to fill in the role of bread winner for the family

The support offered by medical institutions and other agencies is limited to medical assistance to the patient. But there is very little or no support available for the rest of the family – during the illness or after the demise of the patient

Jeevan Shakti Fund was established in Nov 2013 to assist and support such families in this difficult phase of their life. The support is mainly in the form of educational assistance to the children, creating opportunities for the sustained livelihood of the family by helping the adult member of the family start earning. We also provide counseling to the family and guide them to take right decisions.

Sustenance:

Short term:

The demise of the bread winning patient immediately cuts off the source of income and livelihood for the family. We provide these families financial support towards procurement of food items and other essential necessities. We have seen that, in most cases, while the patient is ill and is being treated, the family does not have any mental space to think ahead and about the future. In several cases, the spouse of the patient is a homemaker and is not used to working and earning.  She is not exposed to dealing with external world. There is a big question mark on the road ahead for them. The immediate financial assistance also gives them some time to think and plan about their future.

Jeevan Shakti Fund addresses this issue by providing:

1. Up to 3 months of groceries for the family
2. Short term medical assistance, if required by any member of the family.

Long term:
Along with this short term support, we focus on making the family self-sustained.  We encourage the adult member(s) of the family, to build business upon any specific prior work experience. We also understand any specific help that they may need from us to start up this business and appropriately support it, e.g: we have provided financial support towards doing small business like selling artificial jewelry or selling vegetables or stitching clothes, etc

We also counsel family in identifying specific vocational training geared towards creating employment. We provide support for obtaining this training from appropriate institutes e.g. we have supported beneficiaries or training in tailoring at a tailoring institute, training vocational skills @ Unnati.

Education:
We believe that education is the most important tool to empowerment. However, in many such families, children’s education is discontinued – as they don’t have the necessary means to support it financially or otherwise.

Our first commitment is to ensure that these children continue their education. We fund for their school fees and any other needs like School Uniforms, books, etc.

We also guide children on the right educational choices including the choice of schools, etc.

Counselling:
In the initial stages, the families need as much psychological support as anything else. Our counseling volunteers talk to them, understand the way they think, understand their history and background – in general engage with them.

Counseling is required in cases where they are confused or unsure about the choices to be made. They need to gain confidence and skills in order to get employed.  Our counselors focus on all these aspects and make the beneficiary mentally/psychologically ready to stitch back life together.

Sharing:
Beneficiaries get immense confidence, motivation and also increased social network when they meet each other and understand how others in similar condition as theirs have continued their life.