Vishwa Konkani Seva award to Dr B Shantharam Baliga, M Noronha

MANGALURU: Dr B Shantharam Baliga and Dr Lavina M Noronha will be conferred with the Basti Vaman Shenoy Vishwa Konkani Seva Puraskar, the annual awards instituted by World Konkani Centre for 2022, for their outstanding contribution to society.
They will be honoured with the awards during the Vishwa Konkani Puraskar ceremony in the presence of T V Mohandas Pai and Dr P Dayananda Pai and others at World Konkani Centre here on February 9. Well-known human rights and consumer awareness activist Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag will present the awards. He will also deliver a Basti Vaman Shenoy Memorial Lecture on the occasion.
The awardees
Dr B Shantharam Baliga, a practising paediatrician and Professor Emeritus of paediatrics at Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, was chosen for outstanding contributions in neonatal critical care in the district hospitals which has resulted in the reduction of infant mortality ratio and contribution in malaria control in the region. Dr Lavina M Noronha, director of Ave Maria Palliative Care, was chosen for her service to terminally ill and Alzheimer’s patients by setting up Ave Maria Palliative Care Hospice and Susheg Jivith Neuro Care centre here.
Dr Baliga has put over 40 years of service to improve neonatal care and child care in the public health sector.
Noronha, got her M Phil from NIMHANS, Bengaluru and doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US. Her life changed, when she came to India to be with her father who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Although, in the past, she had counselled many Alzheimer’s sufferers, it was different when she saw her father suffer. She saw that there was little help available for terminally-ill patients. She returned to her home town to start a hospice.