Mohan - Dignity is a Human Right
How often do you look at city lights and consider that each illuminated window is an individual story? “There is something that’s kind of fun about just being in the city, at certain hours of the day. Either the early morning hours and going for a walk, or the really late night hours and being able to see a checkered pattern, that’s always kind of different on every building of lights. And knowing that each one of those lights is a story that’s happening in live time. For me, it’s a great way to feel really at home, but at the same time really small, and part of something.”
For Mohan, people, stories, and healthcare are his job, and quite obviously his passion, as well. As a board member for the Blocks SLC, Mohan was an encouraging force behind the SonderSLC project, and sharing his story feels very full circle. As someone who believes that, “It’s always about remembering that there’s one massive story and everyone has a role.” Mohan embodies the meaning of sonder, carrying that curiosity and empathy for others into his daily life.
Mohan’s parents immigrated to the United States in the 90s, moving to Salt Lake City when Mohan was around age 6 or 7. Since then, Salt Lake City has become home to Mohan. “In the early 2000s there weren't a lot of Indian Americans / Southeast Asians, [in Salt Lake City]. My family was part of helping build what is now the Hindu Temple in South Jordan. It was nice to have a small pocket, but that was [my] entire interpretation of what it was like to be an Indian in America, which is so not true. [In Utah], we were the minority’s minority. It was challenging in a lot of ways, but at the same time it wasn’t that challenging. It was always consistently different for me. Always needed to figure it out, make friends, problem solve, be creative. It just kind of was baked in, from day one.”
In revisiting his roots, Mohan saw “the world for the first time in its absolute, ugly, beauty.” At age 10, Mohan’s parents took him to India to visit an orphanage for disabled children, where their family had made a donation. The experience was a lot for Mohan to process, especially at such a young age. He asked his mom, “Why are we here?” and her wisdom is something that has continued to grow with Mohan.
Mohan’s mom replied, “When you grow up you're going to ask yourself a lot of questions, and people are going to try to give you a bunch of fake answers. ‘Why am I here? What’s going on? And what’s the purpose of life?’ It’s 3 simple words and nothing else, ‘Help other people.’” She proceeded to share an example with Mohan, “Imagine we’re going to school, and you know how we get stuck in traffic? Imagine a day where there’s no traffic. Imagine we go to the grocery store, and there’s no lines. Imagine going to a movie theater, and no one is in there. There are people around us every day that we don’t pay attention to, but the moment they’re gone, you’d notice. So, it’s important to remember those people before it’s too late, and the world decides to remember them.”
Mohan admits that at age 10, he still didn’t understand what his mom was talking about. From a very early age he had decided that he wanted to become a doctor, to help people. Fast forward to early adulthood and Mohan took a volunteer opportunity at Shriners, where they were creating and delivering braces and prosthetics for children in need. They would “spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars” to give the prosthetics to families who had traveled from everywhere, for this opportunity. “We would make these things with such intention and see a child walk for the first time. It would be the cutest thing.” And yet, people would come back and return the barely used equipment a month or so later, because their children outgrew it, or they couldn’t get used to wearing the prosthetics.
“Part of my job was to throw that stuff away, and in that moment [it was a] total fish lens of what about all the other people I’ve met in my life? What about all these kids in India, in the orphanage? I know people who would do anything for this stuff.” Seeing the vast amount of medical equipment that was just being thrown away, Mohan felt that there had to be a better way to repurpose all of these supplies and created the non-profit Project Embrace.
“Project embrace was originally [created] to recycle medical braces. I’ll never forgive myself for that one. The problem is because [these medical devices] are made so specifically for patients, you can't really reuse them. Because there is so much variability [in body types], and usually it just ends up causing more harm. [But] what about other things? Like wheelchairs, or crutches, things that help you live your life and be more mobile. You go to places in India or even on the Res and you see people with wheelchairs fastened out of bike parts and a lawn chair, and people are just like, ‘That’s genius’, and I'm like no it’s not, that’s adaptive, and undignified.”
“Then you see people in Salt Lake City who have had to amputate their toes because during the winter they didn't have a place to stay, and they’re uninsured, and they numb the pain by drinking all day, and are now being pushed around in a shopping cart. This is every day. We are sitting on all of this stuff. It’s just about balance and getting it to the right people. I think dignity is a human right; it’s non-negotiable. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not hard to get someone a set of crutches. [Project Embrace] just kind of snowballed, really. It got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and then the pandemic happened, and then there were tariffs, and here we are.”
Project Embrace started in 2018, collecting gently used medical equipment from hospitals, clinics, and other distributors, producers, and manufacturers. “We come in and intercept those things, reengineer, clean them up, etc. and then get them out to under insured, or non-insured communities, and isolated folks, all around the world. We do a ton of work with undocumented patients, refugees, humanitarian aid, tribes, and folks who traditionally have a hard time enrolling in services, or just having access to [health care].”
Unknowingly, Mohan had created the first non-profit of its kind, in the world. Attracting the attention of organizations and news outlets like TEDx, The Washington Post, Forbes, Stanford, Oxford, and the W.H.O., just to name a few. Project Embrace published with the World Health Organization and helped to underwrite new policies around building resiliency in low resource communities, and helped to set the global standard on what to do with gently used medical equipment.
Today, Mohan and Project Embrace continue to learn the stories of the communities that they serve, to understand their needs, and get to the root of their challenges, so they can “custom tailor certain services that need to be out there that will help those communities.” With the approach of “dignity matters and people need to feel empowered”, it’s amazing what power each of us holds when we’re willing to listen to people’s stories and have the bravery to seek out solutions.
Project Embrace:
Website: https://www.projectembrace.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_projectembrace/