Our Story
Who We Are
Healing Touch is a Medical Children’s Aid Trust registered in India that offers financial aid to children from low socio-economic families who suffer from major, life-threatening illnesses. The organization was founded in 2015 by Dr. Mahesh Balsekar, a leading Pediatrician with over 35 years of experience.
Today Healing Touch is a self-funded trust with 7 core members from the medical, legal business and public sector that have come together for one common cause – to ensure that every child has the right to live a healthy, happy life.
Why Healing Touch
- 100% of funds raised go towards patient care and treatment.
- The amount needed to make a difference is not very large. The most critical surgeries can be treated within 1.5-2 lakh rupees per child, but any amount is welcome. We believe the smallest donations can add up to making a large impact!
- The doctors on our team are directly connected with our affiliated hospitals - hence, cases are referred to us directly from social workers that support our partner hospitals.
Meet Our Leaders
Board Of Trustees
Dr. Mahesh Balsekar
Dr Mahesh Balsekar is a consultant pediatrician with 3 decades of experience. He is an honorary pediatrician at Breach Candy hospital and Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital. Dr Balsekar has special interest in newborn care and public health. He is a medical advisor to St. Jude’s India – an NGO for childhood cancer patients, and on the board of ‘Project NEEDS’ – an NGO which assists low income rural school children. He is specially interested in public health education and has authored a book : 0 to 2, Baby and You, A Pediatrician’s Handbook of Practical Parenting.
Dr. Nilima Mehta
Dr. Nilima Mehta has done extensive work in the area of Child Rights, Child Protection, Juvenile Justice System, Family Strengthening and Non Institutional Alternative Care programmes like Adoption, Foster Care, and Family Counselling. Dr. Mehta is associated with the State and Central Government and the Planning Commission for Policy Development, Training, Research and Review of National Legislations. She has been a member of the Juvenile Justice Act Review Committee, Govt. of India. She has been an Advisor and a Consultant with several organizations like UNICEF, CRY, CHILDLINE, ICCW, IAPA, FSC, Vatsalya Foundation and Mumbai Mobile Crèches. She has been the first Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Mumbai. Dr. Nilima has been the Chair Professor at the TISS and currently is a Visiting Faculty at the SNDT, NN, Mumbai University, and TISS.
Mr. Ameet Hariani
Ameet is the Managing and Founding partner at Hariani and Co and a member of Bombay Incorporated Law Society; Law Society of England & Wales; Law Society of Singapore; Bar Council of Maharashtra; Bombay Bar Association. He consults with leading corporate clients and specializes in real estate, corporate law and the pharmaceutical industry. He has authored a book “Real Estate Laws” published by Bombay Chartered Accountants Society. He has taken the lead in filing several Public Interest Litigation related to the social sector.
Dr. Feroze Soonawala
Feroze is a Obstetrician and Gynecologist and a honorary consultant at Breach Candy Hospital, Hasina Hospital, Parsi General Hospital and Saifee Hospital.
Mr. Ajay Parekh
Ajay Parekh serves as Executive Director at Pidilite Industries Ltd. He received his Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from UDCT, Mumbai and M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is married to wife Ami and they have two daughters, Abha and Amrita. He actively engages in various philanthropic activities in areas including education and healthcare and maintains a strong interest in leveraging public policy and social impact investment as a means to driving change.
Program Coordinators
Radhika Chinai Vora
Radhika Chinai Vora has 25 years of experience within the media sector and expertise in content localization. Radhika is currently VP of Sales and Business Development for the APAC region at Prime Focus Technologies P Ltd (PFT). Prior to this role, she has spent over a decade leading operations for content localization at PFT. Prior to this, she led the subtitling and dubbing business at Words Infocom as CEO – Content Localization and is the former Founder & Director of meDia soft, India’s first closed captioning company for the deaf and hard of hearing. Radhika has a degree in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a specialization in International Political Development from Oxford University.
Aditya Vora
Aditya Vora is the Director at U.L.J.K. Financial Services, a member of BSE and NSE. Aditya has over 15 years of experience in finance, spread across investment banking and equity broking. He leads the Advisory Services team at U.L.J.K., which works with leading corporates on both debt and equity issuances. He received his Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.