On 9/20/2018, Next Vacay co-founders Naveen and Shaylee Dittakavi lost their daughter, Sonum Leela Dittakavi, at 39 weeks 6 days due to an umbilical cord accident.
When Naveen & Shaylee returned to work in January 2019, they added a second personal mission to the company:
Through profits that Next Vacay earns we will be able to touch the lives of many others who have experienced a loss such as this. Through sponsorship of various projects at several institutes, we hope to ensure that research is conducted for idiopathic fetal demise. It happens at too high of a frequency in developed countries and it has not received sufficient research attention and funding. Naveen and Shaylee have raised and gifted more than $100k to date for stillbirth research, advocacy, and grief support to those who have experienced this heartbreaking loss.
In addition to supporting Love, Jessica, Next Vacay is a Platinum Sponsor of the 2021 Star Legacy Stillbirth Summit scheduled for summer 2021 at UC San Diego. https://starlegacyfoundation.org/stillbirth-summit-2021/