By IANS,
Kolkata: Rotary India Humanity Foundation, an arm of Rotary International, will pump in Rs.75 crore over the next three years for 5,000 surgeries on under-privileged children suffering heart diseases in the country.
Disclosing this at the launch of the Foundation’s programme “Saving Little Hearts”, Rotary International president Kalyan Banerjee said the number of surgeries may also reach 7,500 within the three-year period.
“We are committed to doing at least 5,000 heart surgeries over the next three years, and most probably we will take this number up to 7,500,” he said.
The programme has been formulated and designed to ease the suffering and give normal life to children suffering from congenital heart diseases.
“Among the children in need for urgent medical treatment, 60,000 to 90,000 need immediate surgery to stay alive. Unfortunately, most of these cases are among those children who are below the poverty line and cannot avail of these expensive surgeries.
“With each of these surgeries costing between Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs.2,50,000 and the parents generally earning about Rs.3,000 monthly, the surgeries remain beyond their reach,” he said.
The next three years will witness a fund output of Rs. 215 crores, including the money allotted for the programme “Saving Little Hearts”.
“Besides the heart surgeries, we are also concentrating on other areas in healthcare, education, environment, empowerment, disaster management and polio eradication,” said Rotary International director Shekhar Mehta.