Fri | Mar 29, 2024

V Mansukhani Foundation boosts Good Shepherd’s outreach with nebulisers

Published:Thursday | January 26, 2023 | 12:21 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
From left: The Reverend Deacon Baldwin Powell, board member of Good Shepherd Foundation; Jeanne Robinson-Foster, attorney at law and chairperson of Good Shepherd Foundation; Deepak Mirpuri, businessman; Mother Joy Surtida of the Compassionate Franciscan Si
From left: The Reverend Deacon Baldwin Powell, board member of Good Shepherd Foundation; Jeanne Robinson-Foster, attorney at law and chairperson of Good Shepherd Foundation; Deepak Mirpuri, businessman; Mother Joy Surtida of the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor; Gul Mansukhani, chairman of V. Mansukhani Foundation; and Lachu Ramchandani, director of Good Shepherd Foundation, stand together during a presentation by the V. Mansukhani Foundation of six nebulisers to the Good Shepherd Foundation on Monday, January 23, 2023.

WESTERN BUREAU:

GOOD SHEPHERD Foundation Medical Centre, the healthcare arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Montego Bay, has received six nebulisers to aid their mission in caring for children and their parents in underserved communities across the island.The nebulisers were donated by Gul Mansukhani, managing director for the appliance and manufacturing company BlackPoint, through his V. Mansukhani Foundation, in a presentation ceremony on Monday, January 23.

Mother Joy Surtida of the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, who has responsibility for the medical centre, says the church-based facility is now in a better position to help those with respiratory complications, having received the brand new set of nebulisers.

“This will really help a lot with the patients that come here with asthma. They’ll get quality service with this type of machines that we’re given,” said Mother Surtida.

“This is really a great help for us. They will go a far way in reaching many more children,” she told The Gleaner. Lachu Ramchandani, a director of the Good Shepherd Foundation, said he was moved by the large number of children who were presenting with respiratory illnesses in the latter part of last year and which continued into the new year and went about sourcing the equipment.

“I made the request of the foundation (V. Mansukhani) for these nebulisers, of which we gave 20 to Cornwall Regional Hospital recently. And today, we are donating six to the Good Shepherd Foundation. I have another six to be presented to a few schools at a later date,” said Ramchandani.

He said he made representation for the equipment because the Roman Catholic Diocese, through its outreach arm, wanted to ensure that it played its part in helping to save lives.

The Reverend Deacon Baldwin Powell, a board member for Good Shepherd Foundation, says the medical centre, which includes the Hope Teaching Clinic, serves a wide variety of persons throughout the communities across St James and western Jamaica.

“Children are usually affected by upper respiratory problems, asthma, etcetera, and because of lack of affordability, have (limited) access to equipment that will help them in this way,” he shared after the presentation. “We see this as a beneficial and very tangible way of helping our children and others who come to this clinic.”The V. Mansukhani Foundation is named in memory of Gul Mansukhani’s mother Veena Mansukhani. Mansukhani lost his only son Vijay to asthma. albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com