Page 14 - IB December 2023

Pacific People of the Year Pacific People of the Year

(L-R) Krupali and Sumeet Tappoo, Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital, a visiting medical team at work, Baby Meiva Raikanawa and her family at her ‘Gift of Life’
ceremony.

SPIRITUALITY IN ACTION

By Richard Naidu in the Pacific region. And each operation can be anywhere
between $100,000 to $200,000,” said Fiji’s Assistant Minister
The glitter of the family name, the association with one for Women, Children and Social Protection, Sashi Kiran at a
of Fiji’s biggest business houses, the label of international recent ‘Gift of Life’ ceremony at the hospital.
performing artist and the presence on some of the world’s “Some of the children I met in ICU, the parents said if the
largest entertainment stages. It all makes for a dazzling aura surgery hadn't happened now, in another month's time, the
that couldn’t be further from the deep spirituality that drives child would not have been living,” says Kiran.
this couple to meeting the needs of others at a scale that few The recognition of a health service as vital as this was
have been able to achieve in Fiji, or the South Pacific, for that nowhere in sight when the journey began seven years ago.
matter. “We took a massive leap of faith and when we started, no
It was mainly for their efforts to establish the largest one believed us. Sumeet and I were ridiculed at times and
children’s cardiac hospital in the South Pacific that Sumeet many people thought that we were mad,” Krupali told Islands
Tappoo and his wife, Dr Krupali Tappoo, were conferred with Business.
the International Excellence Awards in the British Parliament Having seen his parents dedicate their life to serving others
this year. from a very early age, Sumeet grew up wanting to make a
And those efforts have inspired Islands Business to include difference to the underprivileged and needy in Fiji and around
them in our list of Pacific People for 2023. the world.
Sumeet and Krupali were among 30 personalities “I believe in the law of reflection, reaction and resound.
from around the world recognised for their outstanding Whatever we put out into the world through our thoughts,
contribution to society, in a ceremony organised by the words and deeds is the energy which envelopes and surrounds
World Book of Records and Nobles of Commonwealth Nations us and it is what we receive back from this world,” Sumeet
Awards, held in the presence of members of the English House told Islands Business.
of Commons. It’s that kind of philosophy that has made the miraculous
Having set up a hospital in Fiji that has saved the lives of possible, without any association with the gigantic family
more than 230 children from across the region, by providing business.
free surgery for congenital heart conditions (CHD) that their “After completion of my MBA, I was part of the Tappoo
parents would otherwise not have been able to afford, the Group for one year and then I left it completely to pursue my
efforts of the Tappoos are priceless. career as a professional singer in Mumbai,” says Sumeet. “I
“We are told something like 2500 kids with CHD are born am not part of the Tappoo business, and they are not a part

14 Islands Business, December 2023