13 poor students of Zindagi Foundation get sponsorship for medical studies

BHUBANESWAR: A total of 19 students from economically weaker families have made it to medical colleges thanks to free-of-cost coaching by a city-based charitable organisation and 13 of them will be helped by a US-based body, some groups and individuals within the country to fulfil their dream.

The 13 include those who have cleared the entrance examination to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Ajay Bahadur Singh, who launched Zindagi Foundation in Bhubaneswar which grooms children from poor families for the MBBS course, said. He said the benefactors came forward on their own. Saloni Heart Foundation, an NGO based in California, USA has awarded MBBS scholarship grants to four underprivileged students of the group, he said.

Leading NGO ShikshaDaan has adopted and five students and Bhubaneswar-based Easter Drug one student of foundation this year, while another student was adopted by a Dubai-based organisation. "Besides, there are some angelic personalities who do not want to reveal their identities have adopted students from the foundation to ensure their trouble-free studies," Singh said.

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Among the students of the foundation are the son of a rickshaw puller, who had met with an accident and is not able to work properly anymore and the son of a handicapped buffalo herdsman, whose family barely survives on his income. "All students have their own stories of struggle and success. I am really proud of what they have achieved,“ Singh, who himself had to quit his studies mid-way due to financial constraints when he was preparing for his medical entrance test.

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Although he could not fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor, Singh is now working to fulfil the dreams of other poor and deserving students through his foundation. The foundation started its operations in 2017 in Bhubaneswar. A total of 70 students of the foundation have so cracked the NEET exam to qualify for admission to government medical colleges.