NEW DELHI, April 10: The power to give a failing little heart, the next heartbeat lies in the swing of your golf club and the kindness in your heart!
There is a world beyond ours where even the simplest of things are often not as easily accessible as they may appear to us. We may not have the power to magically swap places but can most certainly share our blessings with the ones who may need them the most to make a difference.
With this thought in mind, Rotary Club of Delhi South is organising a hybrid 12-day International Golf tournament, ‘Play Golf, Gift a Life’, to unite people from across the globe and contribute generously through their participation to give a Gift of Life to children with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD). The initiative aims at raising awareness about Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), a heart disorder of significant impact in children and the need for all of us to come together to give a gift of life to children, from the underprivileged homes, who can ill afford the resource- intensive treatment and may lose their chance to live.
In India alone, 3,00,000 children are born with CHD and 25% seldom live beyond the age of one. Of these, about one-fifth are likely to have serious defects, requiring an intervention in the first year of life. With rapid advances in diagnosis and treatment of CHD, the vast majority of children born with CHD in high-income countries reach adulthood. However, this is not the case for children born in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) such as India, where such advanced care is not accessible for all children. The estimated number of children born with CHD every year in India is posing a tremendous challenge for the families, society and health care system.
The tournament is conceptualised in a hybrid format, where golfers can play at a Golf course of their choice over 9/18 holes from April 14th to 25th 2021.
Talking about the event, Mr.Pradeep Kumar, president RCDS 20-21 said, “There is no pleasure as greater as seeing the smiling faces of kids, who won a chance at living life, with your support. We just act as enablers to channelize the noble intent of the good Samaritans, who come forward, to make a difference, each year. We are certain that we will get an overwhelming response from golfers, organisations and kind hearted people for this fundraiser which will give the Gift of Life to many such kids, who are in need of CHD surgeries and cannot afford the costly treatment.”
Scoring will be vetted by PwC on a stable-ford format and the golfers can submit their scores online, to compete with players from across the nations. To give a ‘Gift of Life’ to Children with CHD, contributions are accepted under various slabs which begins with a nominal contribution of USD 20/Rs 1500 and goes up to USD 40,000/Rs 3 million. Rotary Clubs, Golf Clubs, Hospitals, Industry Associations, Media Houses, Sports persons & Celebrities are invited to support the cause and make a difference in the lives of these infants.
The tournament is aimed to support 50+ CHD surgeries and give kids suffering from CHD, a chance to live & dream.