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29 March 2024

Dubai foundation to do free heart surgery for 25 poor Afghan children

Dr Azad Mooppen announces in Dubai that free heart surgery would be conducted on 25 poor children in Afghanistan (SUPPLIED)

Published
By VM Sathish

DM Foundation, the non-profit charity under the Dubai-based DM Healthcare, has announced that it will arrange for free open heart surgery for 25 poor children in Afghanistan.

As part of its ‘Care Beyond Boundaries’ campaign, a charity drive to help poor patients in various countries including India and the Philippines, Dr Azad Mooppen, chairman of the foundation, said twenty five poor Afghan children who need open heart surgery will be taken to the DM Healthcare hospitals in Kerala within a year.

Announcing the Ramadan charity drive, Dr Mooppen said in the presence of Indian and Afghanistan diplomats that there is dire need for healthcare facilities in strife-torn Afghanistan.

DM Foundation has just completed 12 free heart surgeries for children from the Philippines from a target group of 25 Filipino kids at the Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (Mims), a hospital under the DM Healthcare group.

Dr Mooppen said major charity projects like giving new clothes to millions of poor children around the world is encouraging businessmen like him to participate actively to help poor people. While it is advisable to do charity silently, the announcement of such major charitable projects encourages others to to follow suit and help underprivileged people not only in the UAE but in other countries too, he said.

“We will identify 25 eligible children from Afghanistan with the help of health authorities there,” he said.

Dr Najibullah Mojahdid, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UAE, said the initiative by DM Foundation will help poor heart patients in his country as there is an acute shortage of medical facilities there.

Heart patients will be selected on the basis of the intensity of their ailment and their financial situation and the selection will be made in co-ordination with the Afghan consulate in Dubai.  The initiative will raise hopes of 25 Afghan families, said Afghan Consul General Athikhullah Athif Mal.

Sanjay Verma, Indian Consul General in Dubai, who was present, said the Indian government had spent more than $2 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.

He also said many Indian businessmen in the UAE were joining charity campaigns across the world to help poor people. DM Foundation has been conducting free medical camps for blue collar workers in the UAE every three months and such initiatives are helping many workers who do not have access to medical facilities in the UAE, he added.

DM Foundation also runs free dialysis units, cancer diagnostic centres and mobile clinics

Donation for Noor Dubai Foundation

Meanwhile, DM Healthcare has announced its support for the Noor Dubai Foundation, a non-government charity combatting blindness globally.

Under this initiative, DM Healthcare will donate one per cent of its total sales revenues at 95 Aster pharmacies in the region during the holy month of Ramadan between July 17 and August 31 to Noor Dubai Foundation.
The money will support Noor Dubai’s global campaign against blindness and other causes of preventable vision loss among underprivileged people.

Noor Dubai Foundation is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to provide the gift of sight to people in low-income countries.

Dr. Manal Taryam, CEO and member of the board of trustees of Noor Dubai Foundation, expressed her appreciation of the gesture by DM Healthcare during the holy month of Ramadan.

“This will aid Noor Dubai’s campaign focusing on blindness prevention among needy people across the world,” she said. “Free screening and surgery campaigns by Noor Dubai Foundation for the past five years for deserving patients in several developing countries have been making a real and positive difference to their lives and the lives of their families,” Dr. Taryam added.