Rotary sponsors poor children with congenital heart disease

29 Aug, 2011

Rotary International is providing support to poor and deserving children in Pakistan and India who are suffering from congenital heart disease. A statement here on Sunday said that as part of the peace initiative Rotarians in both countries have joined hands to provide complete surgery to these children.
It said that more than 200 Pakistani children have already been treated in either India or Pakistan. Similarly, a large number of Indian children have been operated upon in India under the jointly funded programme.
Rotary has already spent more than Rs 25 million towards the surgeries of Pakistani children. Another 200 poor and most deserving Pakistani children will be operated both in India and Pakistan this year.
According to a rough estimate, the statement added, more than 70,000 children are born with congenital heart disease every year in Pakistan.
Most of these children come from underprivileged families. It said that Pakistan at present has limited facilities and there are only a few institutions, which provide affordable congenital heart surgeries. These include NICVD Karachi, Children Hospital Lahore and AFIMC Islamabad.
Rotary Humanitarian Trust has also planned to upgrade some facilities at NICVD and will also arrange capacity building of professionals through advance training in the field.
Rotary International is a world leading humanitarian service organisation and has a membership of more than 1.2 million Rotarians and a presence in more than 200 countries.
Health is one of the Rotary's many areas of focus. It has since its establishment been involved in a number of health-related programmes and has been changing and saving lives across the globe, the statement added.

Read Comments