“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” said Mahatma Gandhi. Living true to this is Sekar Viswanathan, a resident of Mundagakanni Amman Koil Street, who is on a mission to maintain cleanliness and hygiene at the Cancer Block of Royapettah Government General Hospital.
Sekar started Viswajayam Foundation in 2013 and it is through this that he employed a team of dedicated workers to look after the cleanliness at the hospital.
Speaking to News Today about his mission, Sekar says, “In our family, we had a cancer patient and it was during his treatment that I came to know more about the importance of hygiene. According to a survey done in the USA, 70 per cent of the death due to cancer is because of secondary infection caused due to unhygienic surroundings,” he said.
So during that time when he made a visit to the cancer block of the government general hospital he realised that it needs lot of attention in terms of cleanliness. “I thought of doing that as a service and immediately started the Viswajayam Trust,” he said.
With a doctor from the cancer block coming to know about his intentions, he was able to start doing this initially in the first few floors of the block.
“The new cancer block was constructed around that time and I looked after two floors. I spent Rs 40,000 every month out of my own pocket for the first three years,” he adds. Soon Sekar decided to do it full-time and took a sabbatical from his job as a business manager in 2016. “I wanted to test myself and after leaving the job I started doing it for the whole building round-the-clock.”
Now with 16 employees, Sekar’s team strives to achieve 100 per cent cleanliness and uses machines to clean the floors and toilets. They wash the linen and bedsheets regularly and sterilise the equipment in the operation theatre.
“Two main disinfectants we use are sodium hypochlorite which is manufactured in the hospital itself and special disinfectant using cow urine. Both these give tremendous result and we use it alternatively every month,” says Sekar.
The sodium hypochlorite machine was donated by Aarjati Foundation and Sri Jayam Agro Agencies give them the bio-disinfectant.
Having started his work in Adyar cancer institute too, Sekar wants many people to come forward and replicate his model in other hospitals around the state. “I want more people to start it on their own. Recently a person from Puducherry came to know about the work and is soon going to start it in their Government Hospital. If I get more support I am planning to start it in other hospitals around Chennai but I have to find time for it,” he concludes.
Sekar can be contacted at 93800 22773, email id: [email protected], [email protected]