The programme “Connecting the Hearts” was held in New York on April 4 to raise fund and call for assistance to children with heart disease in Vietnam .

At the event, Ambassador Le Hoai Trung, Head of the Vietnamese permanent delegation to the UN, said there are more than 10,000 children born with congenital heart defects each year in the homeland.

At present, doctors have performed operation on only 6,000 of the waiting list of 16,000 children with heart diseases.

He called on humanitarian organisations and US friends, organisations and individuals to provide expertise and financial assistance to the charitable organisation called “Understanding the Hearts” to help Vietnamese children suffering from heart disease.

For his part, Actor Pham Gia Chi Bao said the organisation is implementing effectively five projects, on heart surgery for poor children, building gift houses, financing poor students’ study and a scholarship programme.

He said a similar programme was held by the organisation “Understanding the Hearts” in Washington on April 2.

Meanwhile, Director of the Southern Diaspora Research and Development Centre Esmeralda V.Brown said that her center will come to Vietnam to help with treating children with heart disease.-VNA