15 Tibetan kids with heart defects to get free surgery

A Tibetan baby is fed medication at the Children's Hospital affiliated to Fudan University in Shanghai yesterday. Fifteen children aged from 4 months to 10 years arrived in the city with their families from their homes in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region for treatment to congenital heart defects under a charity scheme. They will have surgery at the hospital and two other facilities. — Xinhua

A team of volunteers fluent in the Tibetan language was on hand at Shanghai Children's Hospital yesterday to welcome a group of 15 youngsters from the southwest region who are soon to undergo heart surgery.

The children, aged 4 months to 10 years, traveled with their families from the city of Xigaze in the Tibet Autonomous Region under a charitable scheme that provides medical procedures for youngsters with congenital heart defects.

Niu Jun, an official at the hospital, said the volunteers were recruited to help put the children at their ease.

"This is the first time these children and their families have left their hometowns, so we want to make their stay in Shanghai as pleasant as possible."

Several of the children will have their operations at Shanghai Children's Medical Center and the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, which are also involved in the scheme.

Shanghai has had ties with Xigaze since 1994 and the launch of a program that encourages developed areas of China to provide financial aid and expertise to impoverished regions.

Over the past 20 years, the Shanghai Aids Tibet project has poured more than 2.6 billion yuan (US$423.6 million) into the city, which is the second largest in Tibet.

In 2012, the Shanghai government began offering free heart surgery to children from Xigaze and since then 50 youngsters have benefited from life-changing procedures worth more than 1.6 million yuan.