CHENNAI: The Thalassaemia Welfare Association and Rotary Club of Chennai Galaxy have signed an MoU for the creation of a permanent Rotary project ‘Siranjeevi,’ to offer financial and medical support to thalassaemic children. The Rotary Division has announced a fund raiser in March 2012 for the project.The Rotary Club of Chennai Galaxy has committed to adopting 12 thalassaemic children every year, and arrange for blood for their regular transfusions and also offer varying degrees of financial assistance to their families. It has also expressed its intention to hold awareness programmes in five colleges every year.“Thalassaemia is a 100 percent curable disease. The disease can even be detected in the prenatal stage. The main thing is to understand the disease so that we can understand the suffering. The treatment is expensive and this places undue strain on the families of thalassaemic children. This is a welcome project,” said Dr Revathi Raj, president of the Thalassaemia Welfare Association.She said that awareness was low on thalassaemia, even among those in the medical profession. “We know a couple. Both of them are doctors. Their child has thalassaemia. That is how low the awareness is on this genetic disease. Most of the time, it is mistaken for iron deficiency in pregnant women,” Revathi said.“The aim of the programme is to help thalassaemic children reach their full potential. It is a curable disease and children can lead normal lives after they are cured,” said AC Ravi Rangaswamy, president of Rotary Club of Chennai Galaxy.
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