Managing Seva (Selfless Service) in Times of Great Change

by Rahul M. Jindal MD Ph.D

Overview

The first part of the book gives practical aspects of performing seva in the USA, India and Guyana, South America. I give case histories from my own experience and how I navigated the turbulent waters to deliver what we set out to accomplish. I hope that our teams work will motivate others to understand the difficulties and find solutions to fulfilling the goal of seva. At the end, we could not achieve anything without the help of dedicated team members many of whom gave up their vacations and willingly gave their money and energy to make a difference.

The second part of the book examined 5 case studies of our work dealing with kidney and corneal transplants in Guyana, blood and bone marrow drives in the USA under the auspices of the Hindu Mandir Executive Committee, distance learning in the UK and the Global Energy Parliament, Kerala, India.

The third part of the book gives cautionary lessons in managing seva projects across the world.

The fourth part of the book gives theoretical aspects of seva, which include social networks in management of complex missionary projects, the use of social networking technology in the promotion and scaling up of complex global health initiatives, the growing phenomenon of voluntourism and Distance Learning.

Our case histories represent a variety of situations across continents. Having initiated and carried these projects from scratch to fruition has given us an insight into the many issues others may face when they initiate their own projects. We experienced frustration at many points in the trajectory of our projects; however, we persevered and perhaps achieved modest success. We should confess that we thought of abandoning and giving up at multiple stages of our projects, however, we were reminded of the beneficiaries and continued against many odds and obstacles. Some of these could have been prevented but others were inevitable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491781548
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/13/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dr. Rahul M. Jindal is currently a Transplant Surgeon at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Professor of Surgery and Global Health at Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Jindal is a visiting professor in several universities in India and the U.K.

Jindal is the author of over 150 manuscripts; has been funded by the National Institute of Health. Jindal’s research work and publications have been cited in text books and have been accompanied by editorials. Jindal has played a crucial role on the medical team that conducted ground-breaking surgery at Walter Reed AMC on Thanksgiving Day in 2009. A 21-year old senior airman, Tre Porfirio was shot three times by an insurgent in Afghanistan; he received the first ever pancreas islet cell transplant after trauma.

Dr. Jindal setup the first comprehensive kidney dialysis and transplant program in Guyana, South America. His team visits Guyana 4 times a year and has performed numerous surgical procedures. Recently, Jindal’s team added corneal transplant program to their existing work in Guyana. Jindal endowed a scholarship (Rahul M. Jindal travel fellowship) which will enable selected final year medical students to carry out electives in medical schools in India. He is the Co-Chair of SEVAK Program (www.sevakproject.org) in which his team trains high school students in good preventative measures and diagnosis of diabetes and hypertension in India and Guyana where there are no medical facilities. Jindal narrated the Guyana experience in his book “The story of the first kidney transplant in Guyana, South America, and lessons learnt for other developing countries (Publisher: iUniverse, 2009. ISBN: 9-78144-017387-5).

In addition to his clinical activities, Dr. Jindal earned a PhD in Social Psychology from the Middlesex University, London, for his work on improving quality of life in patients with kidney failure and kidney transplants. Based on his experience in working with psycho-social issues in this group of patients, Dr. Jindal co-authored a book entitled “The Struggle for Life: A Psychological Perspective of Kidney Disease and Transplantation, (Publisher: Praeger, Westport, CT, USA, 2003, ISBN: 0-86569-323-4”

Dr. Jindal recently received the Leadership Award by the “International Leadership Foundation” Washington, DC, 2013. He also received the Outstanding American by choice award by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2013. Governor of Maryland appointed Jindal as Commissioner, Office on Service and Volunteerism, Maryland (2013) and Commissioner to the Human Rights Commission, Montgomery County, Maryland (2014). Jindal was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to carry out research and teaching in India for 2015-6; and also the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, 2015.