If I was asked to quickly name a current single ongoing project that explains the essence of what Rotary is, what it believes in, and what it does to change lives in different corners of the world with help often coming from people who live thousands of miles away, I would choose the Save Little Hearts project implemented by RC Thane Premium, RI District 3142. It is doing this with consistent and sustained help from RC Maple Grove, RI District 5950, Minneapolis, US. The two clubs came together two years ago and applied for a global grant. The idea was to fund heart surgeries for infants and other children in Maharashtra, arguably India’s most prosperous state. As in other states, here too thousands of children requiring critical heart surgeries are left to wither away, and lead subnormal lives because their parents simply can’t afford considerably expensive paediatric heart surgeries.
Coincidentally, if not miraculously, around the same time the grant application was made to TRF, a baby was born to a farmer couple in the Nandurbar district of North Maharashtra. It was a girl child and she was very special because her parents had to wait for 15 years for her arrival. Endless cycles of IVF treatment to get the mother pregnant had put her body to a lot of pain and stress, while at the same time draining the family’s financial resources.
But the parents’ joy at the tiny baby’s arrival was short-lived, as she was born with a hole in her tiny heart. For this congenital heart defect, the baby needed a heart surgery but the parents were by now totally broke and had no money to get this surgery done.
Unknown to them at that moment, a passionate Rotarian from RC Thane Premium, its past president Ram Bhatnagar, was just beginning an ambitious and aggressive paediatric heart surgery project to help such children. Titled Save Little Hearts, the project set out to get this surgery done on underprivileged babies born with heart diseases. As he explains, “Unless children born with a congenital heart disease like this little girl are operated on as soon as possible, most won’t live to see their first birthday. This baby’s parents were facing the agonising prospect of losing the child they had desperately pined for. By the time this case came to our attention, she was already two years old.”
They waited for 15 years for her arrival. But after endless IVF cycles, she was born with a tiny hole in her heart. Her parents were broke and had no money left for the heart surgery.
But the positive factor was that despite the hole in her heart putting excessive pressure on her lungs, making breathing difficult, she had survived, but was susceptible to constant bouts of common cold. “Eating exhausted her. Playing was almost out of the question. Without surgery to close the hole, she would lead a short, painful life. The parents, who could not afford the heart surgery, were constantly tormented by the thought of losing their precious daughter.”
Luckily for all concerned, by now the global grant amounting to $146,000 had materialised, and in April 2026, the child underwent the life-saving surgery at KIMS (Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences), Thane. “In a delicate early morning procedure, Dr L Srinivas, chief paediatric cardiologist at KIMS, inserted a minuscule device through the child’s veins and sealed the hole in her tiny heart. The hole was barely a few mm big, but it was life threatening.” says Bhatnagar.
Against this specific GG, meant to help 141 children, 420 heart surgeries were done at the KIMS and Jupiter Hospitals in Thane. The Rotarians were able to stretch the funds to help more children because both the hospitals were willing to waive a significant part of the surgical costs for underprivileged families. Till date, this project has helped do heart operations on a whopping 1,200 children. This has been made possible by donations from members of not just RCs Thane Premium and Maple Grove, but also other Rotary clubs in their district, and major CSR grants from corporates, says Bhatnagar.
There is an interesting story behind why this particular Rotary club — RC Thane Premium — has invested so heavily — both financially and emotionally — into a vital healthcare service for little children. Bhatnagar says that when this club was established in 2014, several of its charter members were doctors. It came naturally to them to help the club prioritise raising funds for children’s heart surgeries on a war footing.
Eating exhausted her. Playing was almost out of the question. Without surgery to close the hole, she would lead a short, painful life.
Not only has this club helped fund the surgeries for 1,200 children; its success rate is a remarkable 100 per cent. In all, an impressive Rs.21 crore has been spent on giving around 1,200 children healthy hearts and a future, with CSR funding coming from Raymond, where Bhatnagar had worked as a top executive, the Aditya Birla group (with help from PRID Ashok Mahajan), and the Japanese corporate Tosho. Members of many Rotary clubs have helped too by donating funds ranging from ₹2,000 to ₹50,000.
He recalls that initially they did not have a lot of funding, but the tide turned when in 2023, Bhatnagar was introduced to Dr Raj Khankari, a member of RC Maple Grove, US, whose origin is from Maharashtra’s Malegaon town. His late brother had a 50-year-long association with Rotary. Dr Khankari first explored Rotary’s global grants when he was president-elect of his club in 2019. He was driven by a strong desire to give back to India; it was just a question of finding the right collaborators in his native country.
During one of his trips to India, he met Bhatnagar, and till now, Dr Khankari had collaborated with Rotary clubs in Thane on 12 projects, raising nearly $1 million in global grants. He is so committed to doing this crucial community service in his motherland that every year he makes a trip to India to assess the impact of the work that is being done with the funds he is raising. He wants to see for himself what difference those initiatives are making at the ground level.
On one such visit, Bhatnagar, who is the CEO of the J K Trust, a social initiative of Raymond located in Thane, invited Dr Khankari to visit Jupiter Hospital in Thane, where the third member of the trio that is passionately engaged in saving the lives of children born with congenital heart problems, was working. A well-known paediatric cardiac surgeon, Dr L Srinivas, “is very passionate about saving the lives of children who have heart problems. When Dr Srinivas related heart-rending stories of children who needed urgent help, Dr Khankari was deeply moved and expressed his strong desire to help our cause,” recalls Bhatnagar.
Next, Bhatnagar made a detailed presentation to RC Maple Grove about his club’s work in funding heart surgeries. Seeing pictures of tiny, undernourished, premature babies on hospital beds, often battling for mere survival, was a real eye-opener for the American Rotarians. They immediately came on board and offered to donate or raise funds for this project. Dr Khankari, a senior official in a major pharma company, regularly visits India; “my updates from this project are eagerly awaited at my club. Every month, when I report that we have completed 30 or 40 children’s surgeries, there is a lot of appreciation,” he says.
Dinesh Mehta, who was RID 3142 DG when the latest GG was sanctioned, said a crucial part of the project was the Rotarians’ hard work in identifying the children who urgently needed this surgery through health camps. “Because they do not have the means, many parents of such children are hesitant to come to Thane because they are terrified of being handed a hefty hospital bill at the end of the operation. They cannot believe that their child will get the entire treatment free of cost,” he says.
The funds raised by the Rotarians cover “every single expense — travel to Thane, boarding and lodging at the hospital, and of course the surgery itself. It has saved the lives of children who needed immediate intervention, including those born prematurely in far-flung corners of Maharashtra, some weighing less than 700gm.” He is happy that a GG meant to cover the surgical cost of some 141 children managed to send 420 children back in good health. “That is the power of collaboration that Rotary believes in,” he smiles.
“Last year, I met a five-year-old boy playing outside his home in a tribal area of Murbad in Thane. His parents told me that when he was very little, he could not eat or sleep well and had no energy to play. Rotary helped fund his surgery. If a child has come into this world, she has the right to live,” Mehta adds.
There are many other heartwarming stories as well. Bhatnagar recalls that an 8-year-old girl whom Dr Srinivas operated on when she was just seven months old is now a state-level gymnast. “Without this project, she might not have lived past the age of one. This year alone we will be doing 300 surgeries. There are some children who need immediate surgeries and some who can wait 3–4 months. But we never discriminate,” he adds.
My updates from this project are eagerly awaited at my club. Every month, when I report that we have completed 30 or 40 children’s surgeries, there is a lot of appreciation.
Dr Raj Khankari
RC Maple Grove, US
One positive fallout of this project is that more clubs are getting involved, as also corporates. “This proves that if you have a great purpose, you can rally people around it,” he adds.
RC Maple Grove’s focus on funding projects across the globe needs to be put on record. Within Minneapolis, the club funds environmental and educational projects. As several members hail from India and Africa, it was natural for the club’s focus to turn toward global challenges. The club has funded a malaria prevention project in Nigeria, provided sewing machines to women in Uganda, and distributed reusable sanitary napkins to women worldwide who lack access to basic menstrual hygiene products.
Dr Khankari is grateful for the partnership with the Thane club. “You get to know wonderful people when you collaborate with another club. Rotarians share one singular purpose, which is to get together to help others. Projects like these build lifelong goodwill and friendship between our clubs,” he says.
But the work is far from done. Both Bhatnagar and Dr Khankari want more clubs in their respective districts to step forward and apply for global grants to fund children’s heart surgeries. “There are so many people keen to help. They just need to be shown the parts of the world where that help is needed the most. I get a tremendous sense of satisfaction when I tell my club members about every successful surgery. It brings tears to my eyes to speak to parents who had given up hope that their children would live. It charges my batteries and motivates me to do even more,” says Khankari.
For Bhatnagar, this project proves an important Rotary credo — the power of partnership. “This monumental feat was made possible because we successfully combined the global grant with the support of multiple corporate and individual donors who stepped forward to champion our sustainable, high-impact healthcare intervention. By sharing the details of our work with your readers, we want to tell other clubs that here is a blueprint for scaling up global grants, and inspiring other districts and clubs to dream bigger and drive similarly impactful projects in their communities.”
Going ahead, this project will continue to provide much needed, critical heart surgeries to more children from disadvantaged families. As both KIMS and Jupiter Hospitals are very supportive and offer much lower rates, the operations cost between ₹1.5 and ₹2 lakh on an average. On government funds available for medical treatment of BPL families, Bhatnagar says, “Unfortunately many beneficiaries, particularly the labourers who come from other states, do not have proper documents to access these benefits, and that is also one of the reasons we choose them, because they are totally helpless in saving their precious children.”
On their immediate future plans, Bhatnagar, who was the joint director for CSR projects for RID 3142 in 2025–26, says that while one CSR grant amounting to $25,000 is being finalised, the two clubs have applied for one more GG from TRF. “Not only the project team, but the members of both the clubs in India and US are committed to raising funds to continue this project, because of the great need for such heart surgeries in India. According to our estimates, in Maharashtra alone, about 8,000–10,000 children need this surgery every year,” he adds.