January this year, when I was called to the office of the Founder of Cureva, I was skeptical about the opportunity as I myself was working on a healthcare project, though in the online content space, and he was one person I was looking to raise some capital from. Next thing I knew was that I was chosen kick-start the operations for Cureva in South Africa. For me it meant validation of my capabilities.
I moved to South Africa the same day as my visa arrived and was deep diving in work the next morning. The three months that I was there seemed tough, full of disagreements, daily fire-fighting, full of emotional breakdowns and everyday seemed like being on my first job trying to learn the ropes of the trade. Everyday, I wanted to come back to be with family in familiar environs of my home country. But when I look back, the last 90 days were full of experiential learning, knowing new culture, making new friends, understanding different people and managing challenges. Even though I did not do any sightseeing while being there for three months the journey was memorable. With not more than a few hours to myself in the last 90 days, time flew by.
Below is my journal of the journey in the last ninety days that I spent in South Africa:
I was deep diving into work the moment I reached there. The last thing I knew that the person I was supposed to work closely with left the organisation the same week I reached there. The only comfort was that one of the directors of the company who was also posted there turned out to be a great guy who eased me into the system in no time. I was introduced to the existing team. Though it took time for the team of local South Africans to accept me as their team leader, by the time the assignment came to an end, I had made a few friends who trusted me.
Cureva is a company that is mandated to do Pre Primary Screening for health as a part of the rural outreach program of the provincial governments in South Africa. This was to be done through Mobile Medical Service Units which meant creating integrated healthcare screening facilities in a mobile unit. Buses get converted into such facilities. I soon found myself accompanying the director to the manufacturing facility near Johannesburg. Following up the building of the bus was one big learning on managing timelines, managing partners / vendors, coordination etc. It was also important to understand the learnings from the first MMSU to ensure the second one was better.
One of t
he immediate things was to set up a diagnostic laboratory for blood tests. We had taken a space but no work had started there yet. We had been waiting for someone to design the layout. Director of the company who is also a sikh and I decided to take the leap of faith and not only agreed on a design, got labour arranged and started the construction within the matter of hours. The lab, from being an empty space to being an equipped laboratory was done within 15 days. But then challenges don’t fail to show up. There is a big ambiguity on the licensing issues related to a laboratory for screening purposes. But, the business is in capable hands to be sorted in time.
One of the most fulfilling experiences in this assignment was the happiness and smiles that we saw everyday on the faces of the community we were serving. I felt extra special because of my unique look (because of my turban) when I got recognised by people around and got a chance to share a few smiles with them.
It was not only the community but also my team that brought me comfort. I joined in an environment of distrust and had trouble adjusting my 
working style not knowing whether to lead by example, lead by power or become friendly. We had our share of disagreements and discussions but then soon everything started to fall in place. My only intention was to believe in the vision I had for the project, the mission that the founder had set out to achieve and the culture I wanted to build. My past experience with Google was that the only one thing that could set you apart was the culture. We soon started becoming a family and by the end of my assignment, the team seemed convinced that I heard them and was sensitive to their feedback. Not to forget mentioning the great friendships we built on cooking stations – living a bachelor life after a long time!
It was a very encouraging moment when the Mayor and the queen of the traditional leader of QwaQwa decided to surprise us with a visit to our location. Not only did the mayor encourage the local community to visit our MMSU for health screening but also spent time in the bus experiencing our facility and meet with our team. It was a special day for all of us. He and the queen both have been extending their support to our project ever since.
During this assignment
I had an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people. I got a chance to not only travel but interact closely with Dr Sharda Jain, a celebrated and awarded doctor from India who came to South Africa for training the Cureva medical team. I worked closely with the District Manager of QwaQwa who always went out to the way to make sure that the community was benefiting from our program and ensured all support to us. During my many visits to a nearby country called Lesotho, got a chance to meet their Deputy Prime Minister who was highly impressed with what we were doing in South Africa and showed interest in replicating the program there. It was inspiring when the healthcare team of Transnet visited us to see our MMSU. These are just a few of the many visitors I had a chance to interact with during my assignment there.
The most recent development before my return was the launch of our door-to-door program called COMP (Community Outreach Management Program). This was a part of the founders vision and has worked out well in reaching out to a larger part of the community and ensuring that we are able to screen almost everyone in the community. Thanks to our nurses and their speed of adapting to the program, this program became a success. Keeping in mind the security concerns and weather conditions, the team we have build has shown their determination and commitment to the project.
Traveling was a part of our lives. Wether it was to Johannesburg for a meeting, Durban for interviewing potential team members or Cape Town for licences, travel was inevitable. We were doing more than 700 kms almost every alternate day. The fun part of traveling was that we were in a country that is blessed with natural beauty and even a two minute break could freshen us up for any further untiring journey.
Journeys at times never failed to surprise (shock) us at times. I cannot forget the night when we drove to Lesotho border only to realise that there was super long que of people who were from Lesotho working in South Africa, going home for a long weekend. Inish and I had to walk almost 5 kms past the cars stuck in a jam only to find long queues at immigration and then walk back to car, take a u-turn to go and return only the next day. I had never seen anything like this before.
During the 3 months, twice I had a chance to visit the Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) in Johannesburg. First time, it was just a casual visit but the next time was when they were celebrating Baisakhi (Sikh New Year). Apart from the pleasure of being among your own people, getting langar ( Dal – Roti – Sevian) was another high. The kirtan was being sung by the Hazoori Ragis from Golden Temple Amritsar.
This assignment was a mix of enjoyable moments and tough work. It included going for meetings to places where it was tough to reach, meet people who were very different, go to the interiors of rural areas where it was not advisable to go alone, identifying new sites for the forthcoming MMSUs and overseeing the construction of toilets to ensure the team would have a hygienic environment to operate in.
On the whole this was an experience I would have missed if I had not taken up this assignment, which on the face of it did not look lucrative. I met a lot of people, but made some friends like Inish (AGM – Ops), Mr. Kalsi (Director) and Tsholo Tamenti (An Optometrist turned Ops Manager). I am also thankful to Mr. Sunil Sachdeva to have shown that trust in me in the first place to take up that responsibility. We all have had disagreements and arguments but then agreeing to disagree in the interest of the project, is what makes the project real and successful. My passion for healthcare has only increased.
