Dhirubhai Ambani International School Awards King Constantine medal to Ayaan Shah

Posted: 11 November 2021

Dhirubhai Ambani International School was proud to award this year’s King Constantine award to IBD Year 12 student Ayaan Shah for his impactful service during the pandemic, helping to collect surplus medicines to donate to charitable trusts and clinics in need.

Every day, millions of households around India dispose of medicines that they no longer need either because they were over-purchased or over-prescribed. Some medicines are sold in large quantities and only partially used for treatments. For the older population with chronic illnesses, medicines are purchased in bulk for long term care. In the unfortunate event of their death, the family is left with a big stock of medicines, and this creates a tremendous wastage of medicines. On the other hand, a large proportion of the population in India struggles to meet their basic healthcare needs. Thus Ayaan Shah, co-founded ShareMeds with the primary goal to reduce medicinal waste and to transfer these resources to the underprivileged sections of society.

He set up the supply chain directed to the local (government) hospital to donate all collected medical supplies, coordinated with a panel of doctors to build awareness of precautions against COVID on virtual platforms and tied up with a network of society chemists for the collection drive.

To build awareness and to initiate medicine collection on a larger scale, ShareMeds set up collection boxes at housing complexes. This was met with tremendous success. Encouraged by the positive response, the activities were expanded to include collections at public events, schools, and offices. ShareMeds collected more than 19,000 medicines and other medicine-related equipment (syringes, wheelchairs, crutches, etc.), out of which approximately 6,000 were collected during the pandemic. More drives were conducted in over 25 different buildings all around Mumbai (from Malad to Marine Drive) as well as at events like Ganpati celebrations and Paryushan, as well as in partnership with various institutions like the Jain Upashraya and Indian Medical Association. Sharemeds now receives medicine through courier and through drop-off at collection centers. All these medicines are donated to charitable clinics providing free medical care.

“Ayaan Shah was considered for this award after examining his projects impact, credibility, and his willingness to make a difference to the community during the most trying times of the Pandemic,” says Manisha Nanda, DAIS’s Round Square Rep.

Ayaan has since graduated from Dhirubhai Ambani International School, and is currently studying at university and intends to pursue more service initiatives.