The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has launched ‘Sri Venkateswara Appanna Hrudaya Scheme’ at its Padmavati Children Heart Centre in Tirupati, with an intention to accept donations that shall support the cost of consumables such as medicines, oxygenators, surgical material and implants needed for cardiac surgery performed on newborns.
The TTD has fixed the donation amount for each cardiac surgery or intervention at ₹1 lakh. In an attempt to encourage the donors, the TTD has decided to display the name of philanthropists at the hospital.
Considering the growing cases of children born with congenial heart defects, the TTD resolved to set up an exclusive paediatric hospital in May 2020. The fact that eight to 12 children in every 1,000 live births are born with heart ailments and one third of them need lifesaving interventions during their first year of birth motivated the TTD to set up the hospital and meet its expenses through its S.V. Pranadana Trust.
At present, the hospital has 70 beds, 40 ICU care beds, three laminar flow operation theaters, catheterization lab and advanced diagnostic equipment to treat the children with heart ailments, besides the required infrastructure to perform surgeries and other lifesaving interventions.
Initially, the TTD had targeted the philanthropists who came forward to donate ₹1 crore or above. However, the trust board, of late, is flooded with requests from people across the sections of the society to provide them an opportunity to be a part of the noble cause, say the TTD officials.
Break darshan for donors
To promote the scheme and ensure a perennial flow of funds, the TTD has decided to extend benefits such as one-time break darshan to the donor’s family members not exceeding five persons excluding ticket charges and permit the donor firms, corporates and trusts to sponsor equivalent number of persons in break darshan on payment of ticket charges.
