By IANS,
New Delhi: Tired yet relieved, parents and their little ones who came all the way from Uganda to seek treatment for heart diseases were Sunday seen off by Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, who said they had managed to “cross international frontiers that divide people”.
As part of aid organisation Rotary International’s Gift of Life initiative, the strife of 25 kids from Uganda, who came here between January and March to undergo heart surgeries, came to a happy end as the last three children and their kin got ready to fly back home Sunday night.
Tharoor, the chief guest for the event, hailed their journey as unique.
“What is interesting is the internationalism behind your contribution, because what you have done has not only imparted the gift of life but also recognised that life knows no frontiers,” Tharoor said to the Rotary officials.
“The borders and divisions that borders engender are artificial divisions. But the human heart recognises no passports and no borders. And the fact that you, the children from Uganada, have crossed international frontiers that divide people (impresses me),” Tharoor told the gathering organised by Rotary.
Tharoor recalled former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous Independence speech and said: “India as a country has for millennia felt a sense of responsibility not only towards itself but to the rest of the world…. That has been the spirit that has animated India’s foreign policy and India’s participation in world affairs as a global citizen.”
As he spoke, Atugonza Brevalin, 13, sat close by her mother Anifa Nambirui looking fatigued but happy.
“When she was nine months old, I discovered that she had a hole in her heart. Operation was the only solution. When the Indian doctors from here came to Uganda to select my girl for surgery I was hopeful again. This visit to India has been like a dream come true for me,” Anifa told IANS later.
The two came here with two other ailing children and their families for heart surgery. All of them fly out to Uganda Sunday night with what the acting High Commissioner of Uganda in India Katureebe Philip Tayebwa called “a new lease of life”.
“Thanks for the job. Well done!” he told the Indian doctors of Escorts Hospital and Rotary members.
Tharoor concluded by saying that the Rotary initiative which “inspires me”, reminded him of the old Sanskrit saying “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” that says that the world is one family. “And in one family, we all have an obligation to look after our weakest members. This is what you have done.”