When the World Chose Safety, He Chose Purpose

My name is Ananthan Vaikundam Mahadeva Iyer, Founder and Director of First Step Pediatric Wellness (FSPW Pvt. Ltd.).

I was born in a small town in Kerala, Cherthala, where life teaches you early that safety matters. When I moved to Bangalore for my education, my dream was simple. Build a secure life. Do what the world considers “right.” Make my family proud.

As a child, I grew up at my aunt’s home in Bangalore. She took care of me, guided me, and gave me a roof over my head. Yet inside classrooms, I often felt invisible. I was not loud or outgoing. I was a builder, someone who liked to quietly create, understand, and imagine. School was difficult. I struggled more than people knew. Many times, I needed help but didn’t know how to ask for it.

I followed the path that promises success. An engineering degree, an MBA, and then the corporate world. I worked with global Fortune 500 companies across industries like oil and gas, healthcare, energy, industrial, retail, banking, education, and pharmaceuticals. I became a Project Manager, earned a strong paycheck, and reached a place many dream of.

From the outside, I had everything.
Inside, something was missing.

I was helping large companies grow profits, but a deeper truth began to surface. I knew I could make a real difference in this world. I could not spend my entire life helping million-dollar companies increase their revenue while forgetting that there were people struggling, hurting, and unseen. I felt my life was meant for more than the rat race. I could not move forward knowing I had the ability to help and chose not to.

One truth slowly became clear.
If you want to change the world, you must change the future.
And children are the future.

That belief pulled me toward research at MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, where work was being done to truly understand a child’s physical health, mental health, and emotional well-being. I supported that research for years, helping build tools that could see children fully, not in parts.

But research alone could not protect a child.

So I made the hardest decision of my life.
I left corporate safety.

The world did not celebrate that choice.
There were financial struggles, uncertainty, sleepless nights, and weekends spent with a laptop. Society judged. People questioned my sanity.

And then came the moment that almost ended everything.

One day, without knowing I could hear, I overheard my own aunt, the woman who raised me, say that I had thrown away my life by leaving my job to follow my passion.

I broke down.

That pain cut deeper than any failure. Because it came from love. Because it came from fear. Because it came from someone who wanted me safe, not struggling.

That night, I broke down like the child I once was.

But when the tears stopped, something else remained.
A fire inside me.

I realised I had not left corporate life for comfort.
I had not done this for money or status.
I had left because I could no longer ignore my purpose.

So I stood up again.

I took the research, the technology, the operations, and every lesson from failure, and built a scalable ecosystem that addressed every aspect of a child’s health and well-being in one place. Physical. Mental. Emotional. Together.

That work became First Step Pediatric Wellness, the world’s first EdHealth platform, officially registered as FSPW Pvt. Ltd., now alive at www.fspw.org.

As a child, I remember crying for help.
As an adult, I chose to become the help I once needed.

This journey was never about an easy life.
It was about a meaningful one.

If you are walking a path no one understands, remember this.
Safety builds comfort.
Purpose builds legacy.

And underdogs?

Underdogs don’t disappear.
They rise.
They endure.
They change the world.

When the World Had No Space for Children’s Well-Being, She Created One

My name is Ngamnui Wangsa.

I am a 27-year-old woman from Arunachal Pradesh, and I am the founder of First Step Pediatric Wellness (FSPW Pvt. Ltd.), the world’s first EdHealth platform dedicated to children’s physical health, mental health, and emotional well-being.

When I look back at my childhood, I remember it as a golden time.
Simple joys. Innocent laughter. Running freely. Dreaming without fear. Believing the world was kind. Sometimes, I still wish I could go back there, even if just for a moment.

But as I grew older and began to introspect the struggles I faced in my adult life, I realised something painful and profound. Many of my fears, confusions, and emotional struggles had roots in my childhood. Not because anything was intentionally wrong, but because no one helped me understand myself. No one taught me how to navigate emotions, setbacks, self-worth, or resilience.

I often think how different life could have been if someone had gently guided me, helped me make sense of what I was feeling, instead of me growing up unaware and carrying those unaddressed experiences into adulthood.

That realisation stayed with me.

As a little girl, I always knew I wanted to work in the medical field. It felt right. Caring for others came naturally to me, even before I could explain why. That instinct led me to pursue nursing, hoping that through medicine I could make a difference.

I chose nursing to understand health at its roots. In hospitals, especially while working in the NICU at East Point Hospital, I witnessed the urgency of physical health, tiny lives fighting medical battles from their very first breath. Survival was the priority. It had to be.

But survival was not enough.

I saw children who survived physically yet struggled mentally. I saw emotional distress dismissed as behaviour. I saw developmental, psychological, and emotional needs separated from medical care, as if a child’s body could be healed without caring for their mind and emotions.

This understanding deepened when I pursued my Master’s in Pediatric Nursing at MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences. I chose children and adolescents as the focus of my research, studying their overall well-being and resilience using validated tools. The findings were clear. When physical health, mental health, and emotional well-being are addressed in isolation, or only during crisis, we fail children long before adulthood.

Yet despite the evidence, there was no system built to change this.

There was no platform that educated, assessed, and supported all three dimensions together.
Physical health lived in hospitals. Mental health lived in stigma. Emotional well-being lived in silence.

So I decided to create what did not exist.

I transformed evidence-based research tools into scalable, digital, and operational solutions that integrate physical health education, mental health awareness, and emotional well-being support into one continuous ecosystem, designed for Schools.

This vision became First Step Pediatric Wellness, the world’s first EdHealth platform built to restore wholeness to child health.

With the support of my tech wizard who is also my co-founder, we built a platform that could truly bring this vision to life. Together, we created www.fspw.org, a space where care, science, and technology come together to support children meaningfully and at scale.

But something else mattered deeply to me.

The children most affected by poor physical health, mental stress, and emotional neglect were often those with the least access. So I made a commitment. First Step Pediatric Wellness would be accessible free of cost to economically backward children, because health should never be a privilege, especially not for a child.

While still pursuing my master’s degree, with more conviction than resources, I officially registered First Step Pediatric Wellness in December 2025, marking the beginning of a journey driven by purpose, not profit.

I come from a background where it was once unimaginable for a woman to dream so boldly. Yet I was never alone. I was surrounded by friends and family who believed in me when the path was uncertain. Their faith became my strength.

This is not just my story.
It is a reminder.

That you don’t need perfect conditions to begin.
That purpose can overcome fear.
That when you work for something greater than yourself, the world finds a way to support you.

Keep chasing your dreams.
Let nothing stop you.

If you are truly doing something right for this world, no matter your resources or limitations,
you will succeed.