Community Post

School of Indian dance students fundraising event for palliative care – dancing for a cause

May 12, 2022

Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service

“Every difficult journey is made easier when there is someone to walk beside you,” a quote from Dr. Rajagopal sir’s latest book. School of Indian dance students conducted a fundraising event for palliative care – dancing for a cause event on May 7 at Fremont Hindu temple.

Pallium India is a national registered charitable trust formed in 2003. Pallium India strives to alleviate health related suffering. They demonstrate, educate and facilitate the integration of palliative care into mainstream healthcare. Padma Shri Dr. M.R. Rajagopal is also the director of Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences, the flagship of Pallium India. He founded Pallium India in 2003, with a mission to catalyze and facilitate integration of palliative care with healthcare in India. Pallium India comprises 105 full-time staff, 10 consultants, and a network of over 150 active volunteers.

In India, less than 4% of the population has access to any palliative care. Also, in India, the majority of healthcare expenses are out-of-pocket. This makes poor people poorer. It can have devastating consequences, like children dropping out of school. Kerala model is to encourage local communities to take responsibility for people ill with serious health-related suffering. It created a palliative care policy so that every panchayat has, at least, one nurse at primary health center level providing full-time palliative care.

Dr. Romesh Japra, Founder and Chairman of FOG welcomed the guests and lauded the initiatives and work done by Pallium India. By narrating his experiences with patients and sharing their stories, Dr. Rajagopal is proposing the need for a health care system that is equipped to treat suffering and not just diseases.

“The health care system must learn to accept death as an inevitable consequence of life and avoid needless interventions. Isolation is cruel. One should be able to pass through the final moments in peace, surrounded by family in a familiar environment, Public awareness is necessary on the need for palliative care,” said Rajagopal.

He said there should be palliative care laws and policies at the Centre and State levels. Health departments and healthcare policies in hospitals will have to accept end-of-life care as something different from isolating people in ICU units and adopt friendly policies towards them.

It’s not just my association with Pallium-India but there is one more reason why we wanted to organize this fundraiser event. This thought came up in a casual discussion with my students and parents. How do we provide a platform or an opportunity to our young children to appreciate the value of giving back to the community and inculcate sensitivity and empathy towards those in need.

One thing which is common in all these kids and me, is dancing. We share a common passion towards this art form. So we combined both these aspects “Our passion for dance” and “Giving back to our community” and created “Dancing for a Cause”. Through this event we aspire to raise funds to support Pallium-India, said Guru Smt Rani Sunil, Chairman, School of Indian Dance.