By Gaggan Sabherwal
BBC, South Asia Diaspora Reporter
20th August 2020
(Picture Credit : Ravi Solanki)
Ravi Solanki, an Indian-origin physician is one of the winners of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service. The Award honours and commends groups in the UK who have leveraged engineering solutions to address and tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
29-year-old Ravi Solanki was born in Leicester to an Indian couple who immigrated from Gujarat to the UK. His mother Madhu is a nurse and his dad Kanti is an accountant. In 1992 Ravi Solani and his family relocated to the US where Ravi’s family live. His younger sister Priyanka is currently studying medicine in the States. In 2011 Ravi Solanki decided to move back to the UK to study medicine at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College. He later went on to also do his PhD in neurodegeneration there. Since completing his PhD, Ravi has been working as a junior doctor at King’s College Hospital in London.
Ravi Solanki along with his engineer friend Raymond Siems, have received this prestigious award for building a secure website and platform for a new National Health Service (NHS) charity established to support healthcare workers in the UK, called HEROES. The website https://www.helpthemhelpus.co.uk/ was designed and built by the duo in just 36 hours in March. The charity HEROES was created by NHS cardiologist Dominic Pimenta and is supported by former premiership footballer Joe Cole. The organisation helps and supports healthcare workers by providing PPE, grants, counselling, childcare, transport, food, and other resources.
(Picture Credit : Ravi Solanki)
Speaking to BBC’s South Asia Diaspora Reporter Gaggan Sabherwal in an exclusive interview, Ravi Solanki recalls when and how he got involved in this project – ‘’ Very late one night, I found a tweet by Dr Dominic Pimenta, who wanted to establish a new project to support healthcare workers. I contacted him through Twitter and the next morning both Raymond and I spoke to Dr. Pimenta over phone and that’s how this website began’’.
Ravi Solanki and Raymond Siems started building this online platform just hours before Joe Cole appeared on television to promote the newly launched charity and in just under three days their website was up and running and went on to become a vital part of HEROES. The website created by the duo enables funding, provides counselling services, childcare support and other necessary services to the healthcare workers in the UK. It also includes a crowdfunding page that has helped the charity raise donations to support the NHS workers at a crucial time. Both Solanki and Siems have been praised by the Royal Academy of Engineering for their volunteer work in making an efficient platform in record time.
"Ravi and Raymond's round-the-clock contributions allowed the new charity to tap into public sentiment and collect donations quickly so that NHS workers could receive the support they needed when the COVID-19 crisis was at its peak in the UK," notes the Academy in its citation.
"Their technical know-how allowed HEROES to support 90,000 NHS workers in three months. The team's work to expand the digital platform and support provided to healthcare workers is ongoing," it adds.
BBC Links to this article :
BBC Gujrati : https://www.bbc.com/gujarati/india-53842677
BBC Tamil : https://www.bbc.com/tamil/global-53850236
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