Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 - Aishwarya Dhananjay

By Emma Aitken

 

 

Over the coming months, Women in Science Portland will be highlighting scientists and healthcare workers who are on the front lines of COVID-19 treatment and research. These amazing people are working tirelessly to advance our knowledge of COVID-19, sometimes putting their own lives at risk, to ensure that care is available to our community when we most need it.

Today we are highlighting Aishwarya Dhananjay, research coordinator, clinical data scientist and stay at home mom.

 

What is your professional background?

My name is Aishwarya Dhananjay. I am a healthcare professional with a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from University of Wisconsin Madison. I have worked at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston as a research coordinator and a clinical data scientist.

What inspired you to start the Feeding Healthcare Workers Initiative?

As a healthcare professional I witnessed the dedication, professionalism, heroism, and sacrifices of the frontline healthcare workers during the terrible H1N1 outbreak in 2009. When COVID-19 spread to Portland, I was feeling guilty that all I could do was stay home with the kids, and I wanted to thank the frontline healthcare workers who are tirelessly fighting the COVID-19 war. This motivated me to start a fundraising initiative with my friend Puja Kumari, providing meals to hospitals in the greater Portland area. We are also trying to help support beloved local restaurants, cafes and bakeries which are struggling due to the impacts of COVID-19. I have been coordinating with donors, restaurants and hospitals, while Puja, who is an industrial engineer at Genentech, has meticulously been doing the bookkeeping.

How were you able to launch this initiative quickly?

When the initiative began, it was just among friends in the Bethany area, but word of mouth spread quickly (largely thanks to Facebook!) and now we have supporters all across Portland. This is an initiative that involves the entire community irrespective of their regional origin. We are fortunate enough to have a great team of 35 volunteers and extremely compassionate sponsors to keep our efforts going.

What impact has the initiative had so far, and what is your goal?

We started this effort on March 31st and to date we have provided over 5,000 meals to hospitals in the greater Portland area. On an average we have been serving 100-130 meals every day at a cost of $5 per meal. We plan to continue this effort as long as there is need.

How can our WIS-PDX community contribute to your initiative?

In order to continue this effort, we would welcome more sponsors to donate in this time of crisis. There are no overheads, and the entire amount collected will be used towards providing meals for the COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers.

There are two ways to donate:

• For larger donations (for example if you would like to pay for 100 meals for a hospital, approximately $500), we will coordinate with the hospital and restaurant to arrange a delivery date and invoice, and will send you the invoice for payment
• Alternatively, for smaller donations, the India Cultural Association (ICA) is assisting us with collection and disbursement of funds

Do you have a message for the WIS PDX community?

I believe that this pandemic has reinforced our faith in humanity. So many people have come forward to support this initiative. Nonprofit organizations and people I don’t know personally, as well as friends, have come together to offer help. People offer what they can, paying for meals or offering to help with delivery. Restaurants that are struggling have come forward to sponsor meals too. It has been truly amazing, and all this has happened in two weeks!

We all want to cheer on our frontline healthcare workers and tell them they are not alone in this fight. We are all here with them.

 

This week Women in Science Portland was happy to donate 100 meals to Randall’s Children’s Hospital and support one of our favorite local restaurants, Verde Cocinda.

If you would like to donate personally, please contact Aish at aishsreeni@gmail.com or call 857-756-2862. Follow Aish’s initiative on Facebook.