This charitable project, which brings joy to little children suffering from congenital heart disease and to their parents, is being delivered for the third year, and this time it is funded by a national company for the first time.

Under the project, the full cost of treatment for 40 children will be covered and they will undergo surgery in China; Energy Resources handed over the ₮920 million of funding required to the Mongolian Red Cross Society.

Ts. Baasandorj, Vice-President of Energy Resources, said: “We aim to give children a real gift on Children’s Day. When we heard that the “Little Heart” project had been funded from abroad in previous years, we decided to help seriously ill children, especially families in difficult circumstances. Our Company will provide a total of ₮920 million to cover treatment and travel for the 40 children selected, and the cost of one parent staying with them in China during treatment. As part of our social responsibility we are funding this project for the wellbeing of children, and particularly to help children from families of limited means. We hope that others in our private sector will join this project in future.”

T. Bayarchimeg, Deputy Secretary General of the Mongolian Red Cross Society, said: “The Mongolian Red Cross Society is a national humanitarian organisation whose role is to act as additional support to the state in humanitarian work. In 2017 and 2018, under our health programme, we sent many children with congenital heart defects for surgery in Beijing and Hohhot. Cardiac surgeons and specialists of the Shastin Third Hospital carry out examinations together with specialist surgeons from China and select the children who need urgent surgery. In previous years the project was funded by donations and assistance from abroad, so I would like to express our gratitude that this year, for the first time, such substantial funding has come from the domestic private sector.”

Cardiac surgeons and specialists of the Shastin Third Hospital work together on selecting the children for the project and on their treatment and monitoring. Among children under regular medical supervision, those needing urgent treatment are selected first, taking into account whether treatment is possible in Mongolia and the family’s standard of living.

B. Bulgan, a doctor in the cardiovascular surgery department of the Shastin Third Hospital, said: “The operations will be carried out at the state hospital in Hohhot, China. Specialist doctors will come from Hohhot for a joint examination and select the children for surgery. In our country, congenital heart defects occur in 4–5 of every 100 children. That is four to five times the world average. Heart defects can be fully diagnosed from two months of pregnancy, but because of a lack of health education among our people the rate of babies born with defects is this high. Parents should prepare their health before pregnancy, yet they only read up on it after illness appears.”

Children diagnosed with congenital heart defects at the NCMCH are transferred to the supervision of the cardiovascular surgery department of the Third Hospital if they need surgery.