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On his recent family vacation to Jammu and Kashmir, pictures and videos of which went viral across social media platforms, cricketing stalwart Sachin Tendulkar visited the Inga Health Foundation in Srinagar.
Taking time out of his family vacation, the legend, nicknamed the 'Master Blaster', met surgeons and a few young children, who had benefited from financial support from his foundation for their cleft lip and palate surgeries. Sachin was accompanied by his wife Anjali Tendulkar and daughter Sara during his visit to the foundation. He also met Mohammad Shakeel Sheikh, another patient who benefitted from his foundation, and other young patients, including those who have already undergone successful surgeries sponsored by the Sachin Tendulkar Foundation as well as those awaiting their procedures. The Sachin Tendulkar Foundation was created to give children equal access to health, education and sports and to create a better world for them. Among its many initiatives, the foundation provides crucial support to the Inga Health Foundation to treat children with facial deformities such as cleft lip and palate. This is part of the foundation's ongoing efforts to provide support for surgeries across Inga Health Foundation's three centres in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Srinagar, ensuring that the children suffering from these conditions receive the necessary medical attention and care to lead normal, healthy lives. In Srinagar, the Inga Health Foundation has a centre situated at the New City Hospital with an exclusive ward and a dedicated Operation Theatre. The centre also provides orthodontics and speech therapy to patients as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. Cleft lip and palate are among the most common birth defects that occur when the two sides of the lip do not completely fuse in the womb. It affects weight, speech and ability to chew due to the abnormal arrangement of teeth and the jaw. It is estimated that around 27,000 and 33,000 children are born every year with varying severity of cleft lip and palate. A surgical intervention to repair cleft lip and palate within the first few months to 18 months of life significantly improves the affected child's ability to breathe, hear, and develop normal speech and language skills. With proper and timely surgery and therapy, most children with orofacial clefts lead healthy lives. Sachin's visit sheds light on the critical work being done by organizations like the Inga Health Foundation and the positive impact on lives through the financial support provided by the Sachin Tendulkar Foundation. His visit will help bring awareness of the importance of early intervention and care to improve the lives of affected children and their families. In addition to the Inga Health Foundation, the Sachin Tendulkar Foundation also supports the Ekam Foundation to provide financial assistance for child healthcare in government and trust hospitals. To enhance healthcare accessibility, the foundation has generously donated medical equipment and funded treatments for needy children at Makunda Hospital, located in a remote tribal region of Assam. Additionally, it extends support to the treatment of children from economically disadvantaged families at the SRCC Children's Hospital. In Madhya Pradesh, the foundation collaborates with an organisation called Parivaar to offer nutritious meals and holistic education to underprivileged children in tribal communities. It has constructed a school in the remote village of Sandalpur in Madhya Pradesh, providing local children with access to quality education. Additionally, the foundation supports the Vidyarthi Vikas Yojana, offering financial assistance to children pursuing higher education. Through Shreeja's 'Football and Beyond' initiative, the Foundation also empowers young girls from tribal areas of West Bengal. It works with the Hi-5 Foundation to develop character, confidence and team spirit in children in tribal areas of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Gujarat through a basketball excellence program called 'Hope Through Hoops'. (ANI)
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