Deepak Thawani - Dedicated to help people overcome challenges by turning his personal struggle into a life calling

We all have a story. Some are action packed, full of adventures and overcoming diversity. Some are woven with focus on the little things of life. Our stories define who we become and the path we choose.  The story of Deepak Thawani made him choose the path of compassion and empathy for those around him. 

Hailing from a family of humble backgrounds Deepak availed his school education from Saraswati Shishu Mandir Dondi Lohara, Balod, Chhattisgarh. After completing his schooling, he joined a college in Dondi Lohara to complete his B.Com degree. He then took up his family business of contractorship for the Government of Chhattisgarh. But, Deepak’s heart lay elsewhere and following his dreams he dedicated his life for the care of the needy ones.

Deepak initially started engaging with a small NGO working for blood donation. He volunteered for several blood donation camps and started to spread awareness among the masses in several districts of Chhattisgarh until the Coronavirus hit the country. 

Deepak runs an NGO called Bhavana Foundations. During the entire Covid pandemic since last year, Deepak and his team of over 550 volunteers, under the banner of his NGO, have organized various social programs – from food distribution to ambulance services – all free of cost. 

“During the lockdown, we noticed that the ambulance service was not reaching out to people during an emergency. So we arranged for a car and turned it into an ambulance. We responded to every call we received from the nearby localities and we were taking them to the hospital in the ambulance”, shared Deepak. He himself wore a PPE kit and drove around 120 Covid patients to the hospitals. 

He also arranged for free oxygen and reached out to at least 100 homes. “If anyone needed oxygen at home, we would reach out immediately”, mentioned Deepak. 

Deepak has been providing free dry ration to several homes since the lockdown. “We distributed dry ration to 9 districts of Chhattisgarh. We used to call the Sarpanch of those places to find out in which colony there was a problem in getting food. We would take the count of the number of families and reach a free dry ration,” shared Deepak, who has supported over 2000 homes. 

Many people had mild Covid symptoms. They were not required to be admitted to the hospital but needed medicine. Deepak understood this problem and soon started to distribute free medicines and also arranged doctor’s consultation over phone for these people. He has distributed free medicines to over 500 people until now. 

Deepak did not stop here. He connected with the Sarpanch of various districts to collect information on vaccination. He then reached where people were not vaccinating. “We got the people vaccinated through vaccination camps and also explained to the people why vaccines are important”, shared Deepak. He further added, “Mostly the tribal society here was not taking the vaccine. They thought that if someone died, it was because of taking the vaccine”. The vaccination program, which he named as “Tika Tihar (Vaccination Festival)” is still an ongoing campaign.

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