November 16, 2016 Leave a Comment
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer” – Harriet Tubman
All of us have dreams. And we’re all in different stages of achieving them. Some of us are already on the point of them coming true, some of us are still working towards it while some may be waiting for the right moment. Today, I’m going to talk about a dream we had, a dream that slowly turned into a purpose and then a mission for our lives – The Little Moppet Heart Foundation.
The Story behind The Little Moppet Heart Foundation
The story begins in our home, where I lived with my husband and two munchkins. The two of us were medical professionals and we loved our work. It gave us great pleasure to see our patients’ happy faces by the end of the day and we felt like we had achieved something worthwhile.
However, life is hard, and if you’re struggling to make ends meet, it can be doubly so. The hospitals we worked in were huge corporate institutions. While they had lots of facilities and talented staff, they also had pretty strict regulations about patients. My husband’s specialty was pediatric cardiac surgery, and this is an area that involves high risk and heavy costs. He came across several patients who really needed medical care but couldn’t afford it. It was heartbreaking to see these little lives being turned away for lack of funds. We often discussed this and dreamed of a place where every child would get the treatment he or she deserved, regardless of how much money he or she could afford.
The Birth of The Little Moppet Heart Foundation
After turning away one patient too many, we decided that enough was enough. It was time to do something and actually work on that dream. We quit our corporate careers and started planning for a foundation. As we talked, researched and discussed, the dream appeared closer and closer.
This is not to say that it was easy. First of all, we had to consider the costs ourselves. Then there was the question of the logistics of the whole process. And since this is India, we had loads of people coming and telling us that we were making a mistake and that it was foolish quitting our high flying jobs for this. But when your dream turns into your passion, you don’t see or hear the naysayers – all you listen to is your own heart!
We realized that this wasn’t going to be a solitary operation; it was something that would work much better with everyone’s involvement. So we reached out to those who knew us for quite some time – our readers! The foundation’s name and logo were selected based on votes from our readers on Facebook. Social media was also where we reached out for volunteers and supporters to help us organize our camps.
A Dream Come True
Finally, the day we’d all been waiting for arrived and we had the very first camp of The Little Moppet Heart Foundation at Madura College Higher Secondary School, Madurai on 13th November 2016. Our volunteers were on time and ready to start.
Our first day was nothing short of awesome! We had quite a good turnout with around 100 pediatric patients. 25 of them were diagnosed with heart disease and we’ve scheduled 7 of them for surgery in the coming months. We didn’t want our little guests to get tired, so we had some activities planned for them, like Origami and painting. We also gave out little gifts and cupcakes, which absolutely delighted them!
We were extremely happy with the way the camp turned out and it has given us renewed energy for our purpose. There’s a lot of hard work involved and we still need to gather funds for the upcoming surgeries. We’re looking for sponsors and donations from all directions. As we said, the entire process would work much better with everyone’s cooperation. Please join the Little Moppet Heart Foundation Facebook page and share our posts to spread the word. In case you know of anyone who needs our help, you can direct them to our foundation website or call us directly at 9786834441.
“Sometimes real superheroes live in the hearts of small children fighting big battles” And we’re here to fight by their side and heal their hearts. We know the path ahead isn’t easy, but when we look at those bright faces and innocent smiles, we know that we’re on the right path. And soon we’ll realize our dream of providing proper medical care to every child. So that nothing, not even money, can stop them from growing up healthy and doing great things in life.
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