On 30th January 2020 - the World Leprosy Day - MGIMS Bioethics Unit organized a donation drive to donate grains for the patients residing at the Maharogi Seva Samiti (MSS) Ashram in Wardha – an indigenous leprosy care centre located at Dattapur, wardha. The theme of this year is ending discrimination, stigma and prejudice associated with leprosy. The Unit raised money from students and various departments of the college and donated 100kg wheat flour, 50kg tur dal, 100 kg rice and 30L oil.
The students went to the MSS Ashram on 8th February by the college bus. The patients and students gathered in the ashram hall. Various games and activities were organized to break the ice. The students as well as patients sang songs and recited poems. The students then divided themselves into groups and talked to the people about their experiences with leprosy. A few students also went outside into the cottages to interact with the patients who could not come to the hall. The patients talked about their daily routine, their work, and how the ashram has been their home and its people, their family. Few of them spoke about how their families have abandoned them and the society has refused to accept them.
"The patients had tears in their eyes but at the same time they expressed happiness in having a new family amongst others living with them in that ashram. It was an amazing experience for us to get to know about the lives of the patients living with leprosy and for the patients who were just happy to have somebody to talk to", one of the students quoted. In the words of Kashibai aaji, “Mujje sunai nahi deta toh koi mujhse baat nahi karta. Tum sab aaye, meri baatein suni, toh bahut acha laga. Aisehi humse milne aate rehna”.
2019 batch-Nitika Kapoor, Shubhangi Arohee, Rhea Aggarwal, Namira Dosani, Aakriti Kumari Gupta, Sejal Jangid, Kanishka kabra, Sakshi Shukla, Bhargavi Bhagat, Divya Shreya Somani, Aditya Tripathi , Melissa Jamgade, Niraj Kumar Agrawal, Aishwarya Kawle, Himani Gothwal, 2018 Batch - Deepanshi Gupta, Pranjal Jain, Shayon Mukherji, Soham Parulkar, Girik Rohira, Hariom Bihade, Shashvithaa Sivakanthan, Shambhavi Jha, Dhruv Mistry, 2016 batch - Shreya Namjoshi, Sneha Vaidya, Atharva Kokaje, Mehul Dhabaliya Mimansa Dixit, Gayatri Lele, Simran Raka, Ajay Kedar, Sujay Srivastava participated in the drive.
Dr. Nitin Gangane, Dean MGIMS, Dr. Samir Yelwatkar, Dr. Jwalant Waghmare, Dr. Leena Chimurkar, Dr. Nishant Bansod and Dr. Shiv Joshi supported the event.