Taxi driver built an affordable hospital | Fusion - WeRIndia

In 2004, taxi driver Saidul Laskar’s 17-year-old sister died of a chest infection, simply because Saidul could not afford to pay for her treatment.

After her death, Saidul swore that he would never let anyone else in his village die like her again, simply because they do not have enough money to pay for proper medical care.

For 12 years, Saidul struggled to scrounge up funds to set up a hospital in his village, Punri, which is located on the outskirts of Kolkata.

Now, Saidul has finally accomplished his mission to save up enough funds to set up a hospital in his village. On Saturday, he inaugurated his hospital, the Marufa Smriti Welfare Foundation.

It was very difficult for Saidul to scrounge up the money to build this hospital for his village. He saved every penny he could for nine years.

When he asked for ₹3 lakhs from his wife to buy a plot for setting up the hospital, she handed over all her jewelry to him, so he could sell it to get more money for the hospital.

He then started asking for donations from his taxi passengers, several of whom contributed their money to his cause.

A girl named Srishti Ghosh even gave up her entire first month’s salary to Saidul, who invited her to inaugurate the hospital afterward.

The Marufa Smriti Welfare Foundation will provide affordable medical treatment to over 100 villages in the area.

On Saturday, it began its outdoor department operations with only six beds. However, in the next six months, the hospital is expected to receive 30 more beds.

The area has no adequate medical facilities besides this one, so hundreds of villagers who could not afford medical treatment before will now be able to receive it.

Although it is difficult and expensive to build a hospital, hard work and dedication has allowed Saidul to build this facility, and he hopes to use it to give proper medical care to hundreds of poor villagers in the future.

Image credit: Image by Silas Camargo Silão from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/it/photos/ospedale-letto-medico-chirurgia-1802679/