KADAPA: Delighted by the favourable prognosis of a mentally unsound person after receiving the required medical care, Bhupathi Raju Ramakrishna Raju stumbled upon the idea to launch Manobandhu Foundation to provide care and support to persons with special needs.
Before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ramakrishna Raju was moved after noticing the inhuman living condition of a mentally ill person at Bhimavaram railway station in West Godavari district. Ramakrishna Raju shifted him to a hospital, where the person successfully recovered to lead a happy life again.
This inspired Ramakrishna Raju to start his foundation, which was formally launched by former chief secretary and government advisor of Andhra Pradesh Ajay Kallam at Vijayawada on October 26, 2021.
Along with social service, Ramakrishna Raju is an ardent environmentalist and has been taking part in several environmental conservation programmes for the last 20 years.
Within a few months of its inauguration, the foundation served nearly 150 persons with special needs in Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and West Godavari districts. Of the 150 people, 40 were found to be natives of North India, who are now getting treatment at Government Hospital For Mental Care in Visakhapatnam.
A native of Hyderabad, Ramakrishna Raju has been living in West Godavari for the last four years and joined hands with Mumbai-based Ramon Magsaysay awardee Bharat Vatwani, who has been helping with the mobility support for safely reuniting mentally ill persons with their family members in North India.
With the support of Bharat Vatwani, he has reunited many persons with their family members in Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. In a bid to expand Manobandhu Foundation services in the Kadapa district, Ramakrishna Raju collaborated with the Centre for Human Resource Development president Putta Siva Reddy, Backward Communities Literacy Development Society organiser CH Babu and some other NGOs and identified nearly 50 mentally unsound destitute and shifted them to Kadapa RIMS hospital.
On October 6, Kadapa SP KKN Anburajan flagged off a vehicle shifting the first batch of 30 persons to Government Hospital For Mental Care in Visakhapatnam. Arrangements have been made to shift the remaining 20 persons to the hospital and Collector V Vijayaramaraju will flag off a vehicle on October 17 to shift the second batch consisting of 20 persons.
Manobandhu Foundation managing trustee Bhupathi Raju Ramakrishna said that several NGOs provide food to the destitute, but not medical attention. “To plug these gaps, I started the trust to provide medical care,’’ he said.
He urged the people and other like-minded organisations to collaborate with his organisation in transforming the lives of persons with special needs. He urged the public to reach out to the foundation on mobile number 9246563738.