Renting costs as much as buying
For the few months a young patient needs a wheelchair or a bed, rental charges add up to roughly the purchase price, leaving families with a costly item that becomes redundant the moment recovery ends.
We collect unused wheelchairs, hospital beds, walkers and oxygen concentrators from households, refurbish them, and give them free of cost to patients and caregivers who cannot afford them. When recovery is complete, the equipment comes back and helps the next family.
No cost. No rent. No deposit. Serving Bangalore and across Karnataka since 2017.
Medical equipment is needed most at exactly the moment a family can least afford it, and no insurance policy in India covers the cost of it.
For the few months a young patient needs a wheelchair or a bed, rental charges add up to roughly the purchase price, leaving families with a costly item that becomes redundant the moment recovery ends.
Lifting a patient, helping with daily routines and feeding all take a serious toll on family members. In many cases the right equipment relieves the caregiver even more than the patient.
No national data exists on domestic accidents among the elderly and children. In rural areas these overwhelmingly affect women, who often never receive proper treatment or equipment at all.
Equipment does not stop being useful when one person recovers. Our model keeps it moving: every item can serve one family after another for years.
A household with equipment they no longer need gives it to Sanathya Foundation instead of letting it gather dust or selling it for scrap.
We collect, inspect, clean and service every item. Critical equipment is verified by medical and technical volunteers before it goes out.
Given free of cost, for as long as it is needed. No rent, no deposit, no means test that turns a family away.
After recovery, the equipment returns to us, refurbished again and passed on. The recovered patient becomes the next donor.
Availability varies with what has been donated and returned. Call us and we will tell you straight away what is in the store.
It all began with a deeply personal experience. In 2014, my father underwent hip surgery. During his recovery I had to purchase several medical aids: a wheelchair, a walker and a walking stick. Once he regained his health, these items became redundant, with no buyers even at a discounted price. The only advice I received was to sell them to a scrap vendor or donate them to an old age home.
That moment made me realise this was not an isolated issue, but a widespread challenge faced by countless families.
Across countless households, families were investing in costly equipment for temporary use (oxygen concentrators, wheelchairs, hospital beds), only to find them lying idle once recovery was complete. At the same time, others were struggling, unable to afford the very resources that could improve or even save their lives.
That imbalance became Sanathya Foundation. Access to healthcare should not be a privilege. It should be a right.
Every item below went to a real family, free of cost. Many have already been returned and passed on to someone else.
Reusing 222 pieces of equipment since 2018 avoided the manufacturing emissions of replacing them, and kept them out of landfill. The Giving Cycle is a sustainability programme as much as a health one.
The Foundation runs on donated equipment and donated effort. Every one of these makes a direct difference.
A wheelchair or bed sitting idle in your home is a lifeline to someone else. This is the single most useful thing you can give us.
Transport cost is often what stops a donation or a delivery from happening. Sponsoring a pickup, or dropping an item off during your daily commute, unblocks it.
Our current 300 sq ft room cannot hold more than 200 items. An unused garage or room becomes a local collection point, bringing equipment closer to the people who need it.
Help collect, clean, organise, maintain records and deliver equipment. Together we can make every neighbourhood a centre of giving.
If you are a medical, nursing or technical professional, help us inspect oxygen concentrators, BiPAP/CPAP units and suction machines so every item goes out safe.
Most people do not know this service exists: neither the families who need it nor those with equipment to spare. A WhatsApp forward genuinely helps.
Whether you need equipment or have some to give, a phone call is the fastest way to reach us.
A wheelchair, walker, hospital bed or oxygen concentrator you no longer need can change someone's life this week. Call us and we will arrange collection.
Call +91 96116 15555 info@sanathyafoundation.com Sanathya Foundation is a registered public charitable trust (KA/2017/0174699). Equipment is provided free of cost on a returnable basis.