Student Initiatives

IIFT United

They say "A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal." The compassion is critical when we talk about foundations of a stable society, and although the compassion is still in dearth considering the massive scale of problems that the world faces, time to time individuals or groups of thoughtful people have stepped up to exemplify the concern for mankind. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), very recently, came up with such a gesture.

The gesture in mention concerns Mr. Dileep Kumar, a student of MBA (IB) 2014-16 batch at IIFT. He has been suffering from prolonged lung infection and respiratory complications. For the major part of January 2016, Dileep was admitted and underwent a major lung surgery at Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. After discharge from Fortis, while on bed rest, his condition suddenly worsened again and he had to be flown to Hyderabad in an air ambulance. Dileep, who comes from Andhra Pradesh and belongs to a very humble background, is a meritorious student at IIFT and his peers rate him as Finance Wizard of the batch.

Noticing the financial distress that Dileep's family had been under, IIFT's Director and CPA pro-actively constituted a committee comprising of IIFT's student body's Presidents' of the 14-16 and 15-17 batch, Placement conveners of the 14-16 and 15-17 batch, room-mate of Dileep and members of Placement Cell. The committee was constituted with the motive to raise money to provide financial help to Dileep's family. The committee went about this task by apprising the students and professional enrolled in various courses at IIFT. The alumni of IIFT were also made aware through mailers. The various student committees at IIFT responded to the situation by sending mails soliciting a voluntary contribution to B-schools all over India. It was only a matter of single day as the whole IIFT fraternity came out in support of Dileep through their voluntary monetary contributions. This included contributions worth INR 3 lacs from a consolidated effort of existing students of IIFT, faculty and administration of both Delhi and Kolkata campuses. IIFT is also very thankful to prestigious B-schools all over India who reciprocated the spirit of help and chipped in with their invaluable contributions. What was most heartening to see was the response from the alumni of IIFT who generously donated a combined sum of INR 7 lacs. Students also raised INR 25,000 by selling old and unused material such as papers, cardboards etc for recycling. In all, the IIFT community managed to raise a big sum in excess of INR 10 lacsthrough its diligent efforts. All the raised money has gone into Dileep's treatment and expenses previously encountered.

Still in a critical condition, though out of ICU for now, Dileep needs all the prayers to be up on his feet and healthy again. Through the concerted efforts in the time of need, IIFT thus proved once again that it is not only a business knowledge hub, but also a Mecca where values are also nurtured. Says the student community of IIFT "We are there to celebrate happy moments of our friends and our peers, we are there to ask for parties also, but it is these tough times also in which we are there with our friend. We'll do our best to make sure that he is up on his feet again so that we can celebrate at a later point in life." IIFT expresses heartfelt gratitude to its alumni and other B-schools across India for the way they contributed voluntarily and wishes Dileep a successful and fast recovery.

This article has been authored by Anuj Kansal, Student of MBA (IB) 2015-17 batch, IIFT Delhi campus!