The Sai Prema Foundation Fiji has received a major boost to its medical outreach programmes following the donation of a 35-seater bus by Swire Shipping, which will support transportation for visiting medical specialists and rural health services.

The Foundation says the new bus will strengthen its capacity to deliver essential healthcare services and expand its outreach to communities nationwide through continued partnerships with organizations such as Swire Shipping.

Over the past nine years, the Foundation has transformed healthcare access for thousands of families, facilitating over 394 free heart surgeries, conducting 36,211 heart screenings and delivering 66,735 free medical check-ups.

Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Director, Dr Krupali Tappoo says the bus will enable the safe and efficient transport of medical professionals to provide specialized care for children with heart conditions.

This bus is really going to help us with transporting all our visiting specialists that come to perform surgeries at our hospital. And these are incredible specialists and surgeons and individuals from around the world who come and help our children with heart issues in Fiji. We also do a lot of heart screening throughout the country.

Dr Tappoo stresses that high standards are at the core of the children’s hospital and Sai Prema Foundation’s work.

So I think it’s a very generous donation, and I think it’s really fitting for the sort of people that we transport, and the work that it’s going to do, and the fact that it’s of such high quality. I think that’s really, really, really amazing, because for us at Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital, and Sai Prema Foundation, standards are really important.

Swire Shipping Regional Manager Pacific, Alexander Patterson says they were proud to continue its partnership with the Sai Prema Foundation.

We’re very proud to be associated with Sai Prema . It’s a fantastic foundation. What you’ve done with 430 kids, plus all the screening you do. It really is. You should be very proud of what you’ve achieved.

He says the Foundation’s impact on children’s health in Fiji was widely recognized, with hundreds of children already supported through life-saving interventions.

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