Working Since: 2013 | Registration Number: 18, Book No.4, Vol. No. 17

Most of the congenital heart patients require treatment in first year of their life; poor parents find it impossible to raise funds for treatment which can run into lakhs. They end up losing their children as the waiting period at Government hospitals is too long. We enroll the children who are diagnosed with any congenital heart disease at Child Heart Foundation and raise funds for their free treatment. CHF describes our actions in order to ensure a consistent standard of care for CHD patients across the country for now and for the future. The purpose is to carry out more CHD surgeries and catheter procedures
CHF has developed our own poverty measuring index, which helps us evaluate the registration and subsequently the funding process. The beneficiaries also include vulnerable and marginalized
• abandoned/Single mothers
• Daily wagers / migrant labourer parents

175,000 children are born in India every year with congenital heart disease. They are added to the existing pool of children with the heart diseases between the ages 0-18 years. Out of these, 30% need surgery in the first year or else they will not see their first birthday. Only about 15,000 heart surgeries are done on children every year in India.
Heart Disease is the commonest birth defect in children. It occurs in 1 in 100 children. It is also the most common birth defect missed most commonly in utero evaluation by ultrasound.
General cost associated with the treatment of heart disease is around 2.5 lacs which is a huge amount for a poor family.
Congenital defects are not covered under health insurances.
A normal heart has valves, arteries and chambers that carry the blood in a circulatory pattern: body-heart-lungs-heart-body. When all chambers and valves work correctly, the blood is pumped through the heart, to the lungs for oxygen, back the heart and out to the body for delivery of oxygen. When valves, chambers, arteries and veins are malformed, this circulation pattern can be impaired. Congenital heart defects are malformations that are present at birth.They result when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception and often before the mother is aware that she is pregnant. Defects range in severity from simple problems, such as "holes" between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

HriDAAN is Financial Assistance program which involves a process that includes our other related programs. The parents who have children suffering from congenital heart disease connect with us and they come for free consultation on every Thursday to Delhi Child Heart centre. The children are provided with free ECHO testing and then on getting diagnosed with a CHD, they are registered under HriDAAN with us. After fundraising and reaching the goal amount, they are provided free surgery / intervention at best hospitals in Delhi.