Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 21 (ANI/NewsVoir): Genesis Foundation, a Gurgaon based NGO providing financial support to underprivileged children born with a heart defect, won the silver award at the India Health and Wellness (IHW) Summit 2022 held in Mumbai on January 19th. The Foundation received the award in the "NGO Providing Financial Support to Needy Patients" category. Genesis Foundation is one of the few Non-Governmental Organisations working Pan India to support the medical treatment of underprivileged children born with a heart defect.

Every year, approximately over 200,000 children are born with a congenital heart defect in India. Of these approximately 70,000 are critical defects meaning they will need an intervention within the first year of their life to remain alive. With advancements in medical care, many children with a congenital heart defect can live well into adulthood, timely diagnosis and treatment being the key.

Pediatric cardiac care centers are available only to a minority of the children born with a heart defect. Most centers are in the private sector, where the average cost of treatment is very high making it out of reach for many families. Some Government hospitals do provide treatment, but the waiting is often very long, adversely impacting the child and in some cases resulting in even death.

The foundation provides financial assistance to families which have a monthly income of Rs. 20,000 or lesser and over the years has given life a chance to over 3900 children in need of critical medical care. "We are grateful to the Council for recognising our work. Awards like these help us put the spotlight on the critical gaps that still exist in access to life saving interventions for the thousands of underprivileged children born with a heart defect in the country. They also motivate us to keep working hard towards an India where no child with a heart defect dies because the family could not afford the treatment," says Operations Director Simran Sagar.

Since the last 7 years, the IHW Summit has been spearheading the health and wellness revolution in India. Over the years the IHW Summit and awards have become synonymous to good health practices, innovation around healthcare and have been coveted by all other stakeholders working in the wide gamut around health and well-being. The 8th Summit of the Awards were held in Mumbai on January 19th.

Speaking on the occasion Kamal Narayan, CEO, Integrated Health & Wellbeing Council said, "We are hopeful that the awards will go a long way in motivating others to join this movement for overall good health & wellbeing of our nation." He further emphasized that the unique opportunity provided by the G-20 Presidency tenure of India can be successfully leveraged to strive for a resilient, accessible and inclusive healthcare ecosystem in the country.

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