In last 10 years, Marian Cardiac Centre and Research Foundation has been helping cure children born with complex congenital heart defects. This initiative has been taken up by Dr. Manoj Durairaj, Adult and Paediatric Heart Surgeon. Over 350 children have undergone successful procedures in Pune. In the past these kids would have had to travel to other cities like Bangalore Chennai Mumbai for similar treatment. In India 180,000 children are born with congenital heart defects of which 60,000-80,000 kids require early intervention. Many of the parents of these children cannot afford to raise the money for the surgery and despite various schemes already available for open heart surgery, many parents do not possess the appropriate documents to be eligible for the schemes. These poor people end up mortgaging their land or homes and some of the children even lose their lives waiting for surgery.