Have some heart

There can be no bigger health priority than saving the lives of children with timely cardiac care.

Investing in children means investing in the future, but Nepal is going the opposite way. We are only halfway through this fiscal year, and the yearly budget of Rs120 million set aside for free cardiac care of 500 children under 15 years of age at the Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre—the national referral centre—has already been used up. If the government doesn’t approve additional funds, countless children and their poor parents will suffer. Unfortunately, following the information that no more funds would be available, the hospital has already begun charging parents of children with severe heart conditions.