Known as the Bevu couple, Yamuna Srinidhi and Srinidhi Desikamani lived in USA for over 16 years with flourishing and vibrant careers and enjoyed a social network across the length and breadth of the country.
Yamuna Srinidhi is a dancer, choreographer and actor of international repute and Srinidhi Desikamani was a Global HR consultant.
Leaving behind all their success, fame and career, they came back to India with a vision of giving back to the under privileged and to be at the forefront of the health and wellness revolution.
They have started a NGO called 'BeVu Foundation' which is the social arm of Bevu Health and Wellness a Bangalore based socially responsible health and wellness company with some noble objectives.
The couple has been involved in many charitable events & community service activities over the past 15 years in the US.
Now through their dream child Bevu Foundation they are bringing their service oriented attitude to work. They speak to City Express about their initiatives.
Tell us how Bevu Foundation started.
Initially we were looking to provide supplemental income to the farmers and empowering them by helping them grow alternative medicinal crops.
This led to the formation of Bevu Health and Wellness Pvt Ltd which used these medicinal plants and makes unique health drink formulations aimed at benefitting the health of our society especially in the areas of Diabetes, Arthritis and Chronic Pain. As the scope for community services was very restricted through Bevu Health and Wellness, Bevu Foundation was formed as a NGO and as a social activity extension aimed at giving back to the under privileged.
You have been conducting a rural outreach programme. What does it involve?
As our first major undertaking, BeVu foundation is adopting the village of Hanumanthapura near Channarayapatna Taluk, Hassan District for implementing project ROPE - Rural Outreach Programming Effort.
A unique feature of this project is that students from Northwestern University, Illinois, USA have come forward to volunteer with BeVu Foundation to implement the social activities identified.
For a two week period, Sep4th-Sep18th 2013, the team will be living in the project village, interact with the farmers, study their lifestyle, identify key development activities and implement them under the guidance of Bevu team, local villagers and volunteers. This will indeed pave way for other enterprising and socially conscious students to follow and instill a culture of giving from a young age.
What is the main aim of the project?
Project ROPE aims to increase the awareness and educate community members of all ages on the importance of good health, disease prevention, and hygiene in the community. A comprehensive curriculum will be created that will allow children, as well as adults to recognise the seriousness of specific diseases that are relevant to their communities.
To circumvent the issue of language barriers, the curriculum would consist mainly of visual imagery and interactive learning.
We hope to visit several area schools in our target community in order to teach students this health/awareness information.
The team will organise health camps in various locations to accommodate villagers that cannot afford decent or accessible healthcare.
Tell us about the key activities of Project Rope.
The focus will be on freeing the village from Plastic and garbage, develop a holistic infrastructure, provide eco-friendly toilets, teach them about ground water filtration techniques, beautifying key access points, build children’s play area with locally available material , tell them about the importance of health maintenance, proper hygiene and proper nutrition especially for women of all ages as well as cultivate a thought process about the importance of primary education and encourage creative thinking among youth.
(To participate in project ROPE, reach out to them at info@bevu.in or call 9741 555 281/ 9008 711 770)
