Kumari Malavath Purna from Telangana the 14-year-old daughter of poor Dalit farmer ,who was the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest was felicitated by the former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam at the Ruby jubilee (40 years) celebration of the Sri Shanmukhananda medical centre . Besides this the Sabha also felicitated a 105 year old females, living cataract surgery patient at the Sabha auditorium, King’s circle.
On arrival Dr. Kalam was given a NCC guard of honour and later he visited the Sabha’s medical centre and interacted with patients. After the prayer , Vedic recitation of Dhanvantri sloka and welcome address by the President of Shanmukhananda Mr. V. Shankar, Dr. Kalam honoured the oldest living cataract surgery patient 105 year old Rampyari Gupta and others who had helped the medical centre .and then presented the “Ruby jubilee health care awards” to Kumari Malavath Purna the 10h class student . Due to her 10th class exam she could not receive the award in person and the award was received by her father Devidas .
Among others who received the award include Smt. Malathi Venkatesan of Tamil Nadu Kidney Research Foundation, Chennai who successfully underwent a transplant after cronic renal failure and now actively involved in helping underprivileged kidney patients in various parts of the country by promoting awareness.
Dr. R.V.Ramani from Sankra Eyecare hospital ,Dr. George Abraham from Peritoneal Dialysis Society of India and Smt. Chhaya Pramod Lad from Cama hospital also received the Ruby award from Dr. Kalam.
Malavath , whose parents are agricultural laborers , was hand-picked out of 108 climbers by the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Schools, a government organisation which provides free education to underprivileged groups in society. The organisation took up the challenge to send tribal kids on this expedition. Her family lives in a hut in Nizamabad.
The training for Malavath took place over eight months. she was sent to a mountaineering institute in Darjeeling for preparation. While there, she climbed Mount Renock which is 17,000 feet high and secured A grade. She got accustomed to sub-zero temperatures of — 35 degrees Celsius in Ladakh. Seeing her high endurance level, she was sent on the Everest expedition and reached the summit on 25th May 2014.
The Ruby award carries a cash prize of Rs. One lakh besides citation and a lamp.
The Shanmukhananda is the only cultural institution in the country having a full medical centre for the community irrespective of cast, creed and religion with an out patient count of over 60,000 patients annually said the president of the Sabha Mr. V. Shankar. . With a full fledged Dialysis centre which provides haemo-dialysis at far lower than the actual cost and further , more than 25 % of the patients are given free dialysis treatments .
