A child battling cancer had stopped receiving treatment because his family could no longer afford it.

Khushbu Taori Modi was still a medical student when she learnt about him. Along with a friend, she traced the child to his home, brought him back and rallied students and others to arrange funds, blood and platelet donations.

For Khushbu, the experience revealed something she would encounter again and again: people were willing to help, but those who needed support often struggled to find them.

Years later, as a government medical officer in Thane and a volunteer with grassroots groups, she saw the same gap. Organisations struggled for funding and volunteers, while people eager to help often did not know where to begin.

Could she bring the two together?

In February 2024, after nearly ten years in government service, Khushbu left her secure job to explore that question. She wanted to strengthen organisations already doing good work rather than start another NGO.

The idea became SewaConnect, a free platform connecting verified social organisations with volunteers, professionals, donors, CSR partners and each other.

It has supported more than 100 organisations, facilitated over 50 NGO collaborations and 50 CSR and community partnerships, mobilised over Rs 1 crore in CSR funding and connected more than 100 volunteers.

At 6, she was already stopping people from using tobacco 

Khushbu, now 40, grew up in a middle-class family in Wardha, Maharashtra. A keen student, she was reading newspapers and following current affairs, history and social issues by the age of six.

She was especially troubled by tobacco and addiction. As a child, she sometimes took tobacco packets from people's pockets and threw them away, convinced she was helping them quit.

“Looking back, it seems amusing, but perhaps that was the beginning of a lifelong commitment to tobacco and addiction prevention,” she tells The Better India.

She had wanted to study law, like her father, a criminal lawyer. Encouraged by her family, she instead joined Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Nagpur, in 2003.

She completed her MBBS in 2009, followed by an MD in community medicine at Topiwala National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai, in May 2013.

Government hospitals showed her how health was connected to poverty, education, livelihoods and social support.

‘It was a pattern I kept saying’

In August 2014, Khushbu joined Thane Municipal Corporation as a Class I Government Medical Officer. She served as Medical Officer, School Health Officer, City TB Officer and COVID-19 In Charge, working across disease control, administration, training and public health programmes.

As City TB Officer, she saw how CSR partnerships could strengthen public healthcare. CSR support helped introduce advanced diagnostic equipment, improving access to faster TB diagnosis and treatment.

During the pandemic, she also helped build a bed management system in Thane that received national appreciation.

“Government can create impact at scale,” she says. “A well-planned policy or programme can benefit thousands, sometimes lakhs, of people, and continue making a difference long after the people who initiated it have moved on.”

Beyond her job, Khushbu continued volunteering and visiting grassroots organisations, something she had done since college.

In places such as Gadchiroli, she came across approaches that could be replicated elsewhere. Abhay Bang, Ashish Chaturvedi, Avinash Chowdhury and the work of Hedgewar Hospital influenced her thinking about systems and collaboration.

She repeatedly met groups lacking visibility, volunteers, professional expertise or funding,........

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