Food, Medicines, Masks and Also Sanitary Napkins! – Shipra Tripathi’s Helping Hand for Women

Born and brought up in Banaras, she belonged to the lower middle-class family. Her father was a Sanskrit teacher and Shipra learnt the language from him and additionally English too. Her basic education was followed by a BSc degree from Kirori Mal College in Delhi University.

Running ‘Vasudhaiva Kalyan Foundation’, that’s where Shipra Tripathi’s pandemic journey led her. As the pandemic had set its foot in our lives, Shipra had just tied the knot and while couples would see marriage as a beginning to spending more time together and embarking on glamorous vacations, it was quite the contrary for Shipra.

And not just her but the rest of the country and the world was dealing with the after effects of the pandemic wave. Everyone had to deal with the lack of essential items, down to food and a means to stay protected amidst the chaos. This meant medicines, food, face masks, all the things essential at this point were the hardest to get in our hands.

Shipra and her husband were no different, living together in Noida. With the Covid scare, Shipra considered moving to her hometown in Kanpur, but later reconsidered as to rather help people around her than to sit in the comfort of her hometown doing absolutely nothing. Because, while she could sit huddled up inside her home, there were million others out on the roads, the slums, not getting the bare minimum.

This was when she coupled with her husband, started to get out on the streets of Delhi helping whoever needed her help. This was around the same time that the rumor set foot that people in Delhi would not be getting any food, that there would be no food. This fear had set countless people walking on foot from Delhi to the likes of UP, Bihar in hopes of satiating their empty bellies and that of their children’s.

As there were people who moved on to their long journey to walk a long road ahead of them, there were others who stayed back. Shipra and her husband, who stayed as well, would then go on to distribute food grains and other items to the neighboring slums. Although, this helped pacify their hunger, there was also the need to pacify their worrying hearts, letting them know that they weren’t alone and that things would be different and better.

There were others like Shipra and her husband who were out distributing the help they could provide in terms of food, medicines and masks but all the while, Shipra was more worried about sanitary napkins for women being an overlooked need. She would see large crowds and people walking towards their village on foot, towards UP during these troubled times. Shipra saw more than just the pain of walking for miles, she saw women who could face a lot of problems on their journey. This led her to start distributing sanitary napkins to the women and girls along with the distribution of face masks.

The sight of poverty, under privileged and people in the slums was not a new one to Shipra. However, the desire to change their current state and help them progress was not a new one either. During her time in the University, she saw people from varied countries and states. As they had the means to reach that point, she realized that it wasn’t the same for a lot of backward or under privileged families. She wished to do something about this, but she neither had the means nor the money to help any of it.

Now, looking back at that time, Shipra has come a long way ahead with her ‘Vasudhaiva Kalyan Foundation’ wherein she can actually help the people she wished to help. The foundation often receives donations in monetary terms; however, she refuses to accept those and insists that people instead offer blankets, food, medicines, masks, sanitary pads and other items likewise. Her job in all of this being that of the one delivering these to the people in need.

Currently, Shipra with the guided support of her husband and her family continues to keep her social work and the Foundation running helping people eagerly no matter what.