Sai Prema Foundation and Digicel Fiji have signed a collaborative partnership for the advocacy of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) in Fiji.

The agreement was signed on Wednesday, April 14, 2021 formalising the partnership to jointly work towards creating greater awareness of the prevalence and symptoms of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) in Fiji as well as informing the people of Fiji of a free treatment pathway available through the soon-to-be-opened Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital in Suva.

In addition to Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), Digicel will also assist Sai Prema Foundation in their efforts to collect more blood for the Fiji National Blood Service and Ministry of Health Hospitals and Health facilities across Fiji. The aim of this exercise will be to educate Fijians about the need to give blood and save lives as well as inform people about the opportunities to donate blood through the blood drives conducted by Sai Prema Foundation across Fiji.

Sai Prema Foundation director Sumeet Tappoo said that he was delighted to be signing the collaborative partnership with Digicel Fiji and the positive outcomes that will result from it.

“The technological revolution has enabled and upgraded our communication channels into newer realms whereby a person living thousands of kilometres away is just a few seconds away from being contacted,” he said.

“The advent of the Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital will mean that the children of Fiji will receive life-saving heart surgeries, totally free of cost, as the Hospital does not have a billing counter.”

Digicel Fiji chief executive officer, Farid Mohammed said: “It’s our mission to build stakeholder trust as we grow and prosper with communities and to help create a better Fiji. Our multi-layered structure of CSR planning and implementation goes to show our commitment to corporate citizenship.