HÀ NỘI — Lixil Việt Nam has donated VNĐ1 billion (US$44,800) to support Việt Nam Television’s Tấm Lòng Việt (Vietnamese Heart) Fund’s heart operation programme at a ceremony on Friday.

The donation has brought the company’s total contribution to the fund to over VNĐ8.2 billion ($352,000), bringing the total number children to have been helped by Lixil Việt Nam in the past eight years to more than 230.

The programme provides free surgeries for poor and underprivileged children in Việt Nam with congenital heart defects. The donation will be used to perform 30 surgeries on children under-16 whose families are too poor to afford the operation.

Speaking at the ceremony, Lixil Việt Nam’s general director Masahiko Hiramoto highlighted the programme’s humanitarian values in connecting members of the business community like Lixil Việt Nam with disadvantaged people and relieving the burden of needy children in the country.

“We are very proud to be a part of the heart operation programme to continue to bring new life to thousands of needy children with congenital heart diseases in Việt Nam,” said Hiramoto.

The Vietnamese Heart Fund’s deputy director Phạm Quốc Thắng said that over 5,000 children with congenital heart defects benefited by the fund over the past 10 years thank to the support of the business community, including Lixil Việt Nam.

Initiated by the Vietnamese Heart Fund, Việt Nam Television and Viettel Group in 2008, the programme aims to provide heart surgeries to 3,000 needy children in Việt Nam by 2020.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health said 8,000-10,000 infants are born with congenital heart defects each year in Việt Nam and some 20,000 children in the country are still waiting for surgery. — VNS