A fundraiser on Milaap, South Asia’s largest crowdfunding platform, unites more than 250 strangers for a 3-month-old.
It’s been 3 months since Reena Wankhede delivered baby Reemi. The mother was absolutely delighted as the long wait to see her baby came to an end. This wave of joy was however hit by the reality that baby Reemi was born with a rare congenital condition. Her right eye is anophthalmic (completely blind) whereas the left eye has a highly underdeveloped cornea. Baby Reemi is yet to see the light of this world and more importantly her loving parents. Doctors at Nagpur referred her case to a renowned eye hospital in Hyderabad; they also suggested that the treatment starts at the earliest.
The parents were determined to get their baby treated but had limited means to fund the treatment. Reemi’s father was the only earning member in the family and the amount required was too much for him to find all by himself. Shubhangi Wankhede a relative of Reemi came to know about this challenging situation and started an online crowdfunding campaign on Milaap to find the required funds for the treatment. Shubangi shared the fundraiser across her online social network and she was successful in getting donations within the first two months itself. Till date, more than 4 Lakh has been raised and the campaign is still accepting donations on Milaap. The amount was used for Reemi’s treatment and as per the latest update from the doctors, there is great hope of gaining vision. Baby Reemi’s left eye has now started reacting to light. The family is short of words to express their gratitude to more than 250 absolute strangers who spared a share of their hard-earned income for Baby Reemi.
Online crowdfunding is becoming the go-to solution for people in need of funds for medical treatment in Nagpur. Talking about a similar fundraiser Milaap hosted earlier, Mayukh Choudhury, CEO, and co-founder, Milaap said “Medical emergencies can occur at any point of time and the requirement for expensive treatment follows. One such incident is of Nadeem, the father of 4-year-old Noman from Nagpur, who was told by the doctors treating his son that he had only hours to find the amount required for an expensive liver transplant. The compassionate doctor also understood the family’s hardship and suggested crowdfunding. A fundraiser was set up on Milaap. It saw overwhelming support from over 250 donors and raised more than 12 lakhs. Noman is now recovering and has been discharged from the hospital”
Commenting on few trends that Milaap has observed in the city of Nagpur, Mayukh continued “We have seen a 3X growth in the number of fundraisers setup on Milaap from Nagpur. 90% of these fundraisers are getting donations from the personal and social network of the campaign organizers. More than 75% of the total funds have been raised for medical requirements. It is indeed overwhelming to see people, who are complete strangers to each other, coming together to help someone out of an emergency situation and often to save lives”.
Setting up an online fundraiser is a process of less than 5 minutes and does not require a lot of technical know-how. Campaigns can be set up using Whatsapp, other instant messaging apps and even without typing, by recording their story in any of the 8 available Indian languages. It is then automatically transcribed to create text. All of these features open up online fundraising to anyone with a smartphone. Milaap has so far raised nearly 570 Crores for such causes from across India, over 80% of which is for medical and related needs.
About Milaap:
Milaap is South Asia’s largest crowdfunding platform for personal needs, especially healthcare and related needs. Constantly endeavoring to make it easier for people to raise money online for the causes that matter to them, the platform enables lay people to raise funds for personal causes and emergencies, especially for tertiary healthcare like cancer care, organ transplants and accidents.
Milaap’s community of donors come from over 130 countries across the world and has contributed nearly Rs 570 crores for 200,000+ projects across India. Over the last eight years, Milaap has become a preferred platform for people to raise and contribute towards causes they care about in India. Milaap.org is constantly working to take crowdfunding to the masses. The website has over 2.5 million-page views every month and is growing 3x yearly. The platform constantly adds new features based on user feedback to ensure a hassle-free experience. The e-mail support extends over 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is rendered via a dedicated team that hand-holds users through any procedure on the website.
