In the annals of Rotary International, December was "Disease Prevention and Treatment Month". To this end, The Rotary Foundation is funding open heart surgeries for children age 15 and younger in India. These surgeries will be in collaboration with Gift of Life India, and two Rotary districts: D-3170 (Central West, India) and D-7255 - (Long Island, New York). This Global Grant costing $55,000 (US), will provide free surgeries to no less than 16 beneficiaries. The founder and chairperson of Gift of Life India and the global coordinate of this project is Rayishanker Bhooplapur. Bhooplapur said all the surgical operations will be "free of charge to children of the poor and needy" and performed in India at the KLES Dr. Prabhakar Lore Hospital. Gift of Life India has operated on and improved the lives of over 6,000 children suffering from various heart diseases and defects.
Last year, Bhooplapur was engaged in another Global Grant project that raised $100,000. That sum was then matched by The Rotary Foundation, through a Rotary Global Grant, in the amount of $94,750. This grant is to build low-cost housing units in the flood ravaged state of Kerala, India.
