Sailakshmi Balijepally

Sailakshmi Balijepally or Sai Balijepally (born ) is an Indian paediatrician and charity founder. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Award in 2015 by the President of India.

Sailakshmi Balijepally
NationalityIndia
EducationSt Francis College for Women, Gandhi Medical College
Occupationphysician, surgeon
Known forfounding EKAM foundation and Nari Shakti Award in 2015

Life

Balijepally was brought up in Secunderabad where she attended Keyes High School for Girls for 12 years. Her parents were both doctors and it was expected that she would do to. Her elder sister was her role model and she was en route to being a cardiologist. She went on to St Francis College for Women for two years before gaining entry to the Gandhi Medical College. She was there for five years and she left qualified as both a physician and as a surgeon.[1]

On 20 January 2001 an earthquake hit Gujurat killing 20,000, injuring many more and making 400,000 homeless. She stepped forward to volunteer then despite it clashing with her exams. Seven years later she volunteered again when the Bihar flood made millions homeless when a river changed course and flooded many inhabited areas.[1]

She had been working as a junior consultant when she had tried to work out how to support 60 orphanages and she had teamed each one up with a colleague paediatrician. Her colleagues were keen to help but in time the system was not really working. The establishment of the EKAM foundation in 2009 was her attempt to refocus on the problem of supplying care. Anshu Gupta, who she had met during the Bihar flood, had become her mentor and he would serve on OKAM's board.[1]

Balijepally was awarded one of the first eight Nari Shakti Awards for her leadership and achievement in 2015.[2] The award was made on International Women's Day from the then Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.[3]

In 2018 her EKAM foundation went into a partnership with Royal Enfield with the aim of improving the health and well-being of mothers and children in Kancheepuram. They were working with Chengalpattu Medical College.[4]

gollark: Yes. It's quite common.
gollark: That sounds bad.
gollark: > you didnt realize reatailers use face mapping technology for years?Not sure about that, but I would definitely want to *minimize* the amount of cameras and/or spying in any case.
gollark: > And you can track people for block and block on end, via public transit cameras. So even if they get a brief glimpse of the person, they can track them until they get an identifiable image or even where they live. Subpoenaing records is just building the case to prove it was youSounds surveillance-state-y.
gollark: Ah yes, one example, so that means EVERYONE gets caught.

References
  1. Chandrasekaran, N. (April 2014). Incredible Champions. PartridgeIndia. pp. 153–160. ISBN 978-1-4828-2213-7.
  2. DelhiMarch 9, IndiaToday in New; March 9, 2015UPDATED:; Ist, 2015 14:43. "Stree Shakti Puraskar and Nari Shakti Puraskar presented to 6 and 8 Indian women respectively". India Today. Retrieved 2020-04-22.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. "Nari Shakti Puraskar awardees full list". Best Current Affairs. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  4. "Royal Enfield Partners with NGO EKAM Foundation". Hrdots. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
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