How SAATH Charitable Trust Is Supporting Children with Thalassaemia Major and Their Families (VIDEO)

Prabhadevi resident Sujata Raikar had always wanted to do something for children who were less fortunate than her own, but had not quite figured out how or where to begin. A chance encounter with a young child living with thalassaemia major and her terrified mother changed both their lives — and Raikar’s.

“That was the first time I came across the term thalassaemia major, which I later learned is a genetic blood disorder. Children with this condition require blood transfusions every 10 to 15 days for their entire lives. Without them, they cannot survive,” says Raikar, who went on to found SAATH Charitable Trust in 2012. SAATH stands for Support and Aid for Thalassaemia Healing. She explains that apart from undergoing frequent blood transfusions, children also have to deal with painful side effects, while medicines and medical tests become a lifelong reality and hospitals their second home.  

What stayed with Raikar from that first encounter, however, were the mother’s words: ‘The father has refused to accept the daughter and wants to abandon her because of this disorder.’