CONTRIBUTE
Somebody paid for the last child. That is the only reason she is here.
Fifteen thousand children have been treated in this department free or at a fraction of the cost. None of that came from the hospital alone. It came from foundations, companies, state governments and individuals who decided a family’s bank balance was not a good enough reason to let a child die.
Funds are received by the Amrita Heart Care Foundation, a registered public charitable trust that can accept CSR contributions. Every rupee is tracked and reported back.
PATHWAYS
Three ways in.
The first is the most direct. The second is the most useful. The third outlasts all of us.
Donate for one child
One operation, one child, from admission to discharge. You are told which child your contribution paid for, which district she came from, and what she was born with.
₹2,00,000
Amount
Donate for the cause
Given to the fund rather than to a named case, so it can go where it is needed most on the day: a child who arrives too unstable to wait, the screening camp that finds her, the travel and lodging her family cannot afford, the follow-up scan four years later. Most of the cost of treating a child is not the operation, and this is the part that is hardest to raise and easiest to overlook.
From ₹2,000
Amount (min. 2000/-)
Appu Memorial Fund
Appu K. George (1987–2026) lived his whole life with congenital heart disease. He had a BT shunt here in 2003 and a Fontan operation in 2012, and still went on to study, work, travel, and become someone other CHD families could call and depend on. His family started this fund in his memory, so that the support he gave so freely keeps reaching another child and another family.
“Not every heart beats perfectly, but every heart deserves a chance to beat.”
Appu, in his own words
From ₹2,000
Appu K. George, 1987–2026
In Memory of Appu K. George
A special memorial gathering was held on 22nd September 2026 to celebrate the life and legacy of Appu K. George (1987–2026), bringing together his family, friends, doctors, well-wishers and members of the congenital heart disease (CHD) community. The occasion remembered Appu but for the life he built around them as a son, brother, friend, professional, CHD warrior and someone whom many within the community could call, talk to and depend on.
Appu’s journey with congenital heart disease spanned his entire life. He underwent a BT shunt at Amrita in 2003 and later a Fontan surgery in 2012, which was followed by an exceptionally difficult postoperative course. Yet his medical journey never became the entirety of his story. He continued to study, work, travel, build friendships and, importantly, use his lived experience to support and advocate for others affected by CHD.
It was in this spirit that the Appu Memorial Fund was initiated by his family in his memory. Having lived the realities of congenital heart disease himself, Appu understood that the journey is carried not by the patient alone, but by parents, siblings, healthcare professionals and the wider community around them.
The Appu Memorial Fund therefore seeks to carry forward the values that Appu stood for: compassion, support, dignity and a commitment to making the CHD journey a little easier for another child and another family. What began with one family’s experience now becomes an opportunity to extend support to many more.
Through the Memorial Fund, the hope is that the strength and support Appu offered so freely during his lifetime will continue to reach families in the years ahead.
Perhaps there could be no more fitting thought to guide the Appu Memorial Fund than the words with which Appu began and ended his own story:
“Not every heart beats perfectly, but every heart deserves a chance to beat.”
Appu Memorial
Amount (min. 2000/-)
Start here
Partnerships, CSR and institutional giving
The Amrita Heart Care Foundation is a public charitable trust that funds heart surgery for children in need at the Paediatric Heart Centre, and is able to receive CSR contributions.
TELEPHONE
Postal
Amrita HeartCare Foundation
Department of Paediatric Cardiology
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences
Ponekkara, AIMS P.O., Kochi
Kerala 682041, India
Before you write
What helps us reply
usefully.
A first email that includes these four things saves a fortnight of back-and-forth. None of them are required.
Roughly what scale you have in mind, even as a range. It determines which of the three pathways fits
Whether the funding is time-bound — a single financial year, or a multi-year commitment.
Any geographic preference. Several partners fund children from a specific state, often where they operate.
What reporting you need, and to what deadline. If an independent impact assessment is required, say so early — the outcome data already exists and is externally audited.
On documentation. Registration certificates, audited accounts, a sample utilisation certificate and a sample impact report can be sent on request.
WHY HERE
Four reasons this is a
low-risk place to put
money.
MEASUREMENT
Your impact assessment already exists
Outcomes are submitted continuously to an international registry and audited out of Boston Children’s Hospital. A partner does not have to build a measurement framework — one exists, it is external, and it predates the partnership. See the outcome data
Precedent
Four governments have already done this
Jharkhand, Kerala, Odisha and Meghalaya have signed agreements to fund or direct paediatric cardiac care through this department. Rotary International has flown children here from four African countries. The full record
Multiplier
Training outlasts the surgery
Six of India’s leading paediatric heart surgeons trained here, as did the first three paediatric cardiologists for the whole of Sri Lanka. Funding a fellowship funds every child that person will treat for thirty years.
Reach
The money goes where the gap is
Seventy camps across twelve states and union territories, deliberately concentrated in the regions where almost no child with a heart defect reaches surgery. Where we work