Message from the Chairman
Mr Mahendra Tappoo
My heartfelt greetings to you all!
On 19th August 2023, we celebrated the Foundation’s seventh anniversary and I cannot but look back at the last seven years and say that it was extraordinarily monumental. For a young Foundation like ours to make a significant impact upon the people of Fiji is only due to the grace of the Divine. The words and teachings of our inspirational master, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, “Love all, Serve all, Help ever, Hurt never” and “Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray”, is at the very core of our Foundation’s values. Each and every person who is a part of our Foundation is focused not upon earning personal glory, name or fame but sharing a common goal of creating goodness in the world, making a difference and inspiring change.
The Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital is the largest project ever undertaken by an NGO in the history of Fiji. We are truly humbled and honoured to have had the opportunity to undertake this monumental project which has changed the medical landscape of our nation and more importantly, saved the lives of the children of Fiji and the Pacific suffering with Congenital Heart Disease.
2018 was special for the Foundation as the then Prime Minister of Fiji on the 27th of April inaugurated the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Medical Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. This Medical Centre provides quality general medical consultations and medications to the underprivileged and needy people of Fiji completely free of cost. In 2019, the then Hon. Prime Minister once again graciously opened the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Screening Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. This Centre provides free heart screening for the children of Fiji and the Pacific and houses the state-of-the art Echocardiogram Machine offering the latest 4D technology.
Our Foundation’s Gift of Life project, has been supremely successful as 277 children have been given free open-heart surgeries completely free of charge. It was also a matter of pride for Fiji as the Foundation’s Medical Scholarship Program came to fruition with the training of Dr. Maryanne Kora’ai at the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Raipur India.
The Sai Annapoorna project has served over 3.9 million meals to the underprivileged and needy families through the provision of monthly grocery ration packs to the residents of the various institutions across Fiji as well to the rural communities during natural disaster relief programmes. The Health On Wheels Medical Outreach Project to the rural villages of Fiji continues to make a significant impact to the health and wellbeing of Fiji’s rural population.
The Be a Hero Project in association with the Fiji National Blood Service has been supremely successful as the Foundation has won both National and Regional Awards as the highest collectors of blood in Fiji and more importantly, help save thousands of lives. The Children of God project of looking after the needs of orphaned children gave us much joy all throughout the year. Project Heart Beat, a child heart screening initiative also expanded its work of screening for heart disease.
The Foundation’s Sai Prema Ashram is a Centre for Human Development and this will grow into a beacon of light for our country in the years to come.
Despite all the above milestones, much is still yet to be achieved. The Foundation will continue to strive and work hand-in-hand with the Government to support its initiatives. I call upon the people of our entire nation as well as our entire Fijian diaspora community residing overseas – let us all join hands, in the spirit of love, to serve our children and endeavor to make this world a better place. I humbly invite all of you who have the same desire to serve, to join our efforts and help us work towards that common good. Let us try to make a difference. Let us do all that we can to inspire change. Like Mahatma Gandhi said, “let us be the change that we wish to see in the world”.
May God Bless Fiji!
Mahendra Tappoo