The Rotary Humanitarian Trust (RHT) is providing support to poor and deserving children in Pakistan and India who are suffering from congenital heart disease. A statement here on Saturday said that as part of the peace initiative the Rotarians in both countries have joined hands to provide complete surgery to these children.
It said that the Rotary has already committed more than Rs 25 million towards the surgeries of Pakistani children. The statement pointed out that according to a rough estimate every year more than 70,000 children in Pakistan are born with congenital heart disease. A large majority of these children come from underprivileged families who cannot afford surgery.
Pakistan at present has limited facilities and there are only a few institutions which provide affordable congenital heart surgeries. These include NICVD and recently Aga Khan Hospital which has agreed to perform surgeries on children with Congenital Heart Disease in Karachi. These surgeries are also being performed at the Children's Hospital in Lahore and AFIMC Islamabad.
The statement said that Rotary aims to undertake the surgery during the course of two years of 1,000 children born in Pakistan with Congenital Heart Disease. District Governor for Rotary, Iqbal Qureshi, commented that Rotary also plans on moving towards developing resources and establishing a hospital in the near future specialising in Cardiac related problems for adults and children, which will no doubt allow more children who are afflicted with this disease to be cured. Dr Bose from India is also visiting Pakistan this month to work with local doctors and hospitals to help children who are victims of this disease. The collaboration between Indian doctors and Pakistani doctors has been extremely helpful in supporting Rotary to organise surgeries for children with congenital heart disease in Pakistan and India.