Short film contest helping children with heart diseases

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BANGKOK – The Cardiac Children’s Foundation of Thailand is inviting students and members of the general public to produce short films for a contest promoting public awareness of heart diseases in children.

The Cardiac Children’s Foundation of Thailand president Thanarat Layangool, announced in a news conference today, a short film contest promoting public awareness of congenital heart disease (CHD).

He said there are some 6,000-7,000 children born with CHD [in Thailand] each year, 3,000 of whom require cardiac catheterization or surgery to survive, however the national capacity to provide such procedures is still limited, forcing patients onto a waiting list, with some patients unfortunately dieing while waiting for their turn.

The Cardiac Children’s Foundation of Thailand has been urging hospitals to provide these procedures out of clinic hours to reduce delays, for the past 17 years. This year, the foundation has arranged a short film contest to raise public awareness of the issue, stressing the hardship of underprivileged families in rural areas whose children have CHD.

The foundation hopes to receive more donations as a result of this campaign, which could see essential medical procedures reach more CHD patients, allowing them to survive and grow up to become part of the quality human resource of the country.

The contest president Chantima Choey-sa-nguan said today that submissions for this contest must not be longer than 5 minutes. Awards will be given to winners in the high school category, university category, and the general public category. Registration is now open on https://1th.me/Nnpxm, while the film submission deadline is 17th February 2020, with the winners being announced on 2nd March 2020.

Filmmakers can get more information regarding CHD on www.doctordek.com. Further information is available by calling 02 716 6070-1 during office hours or by visiting the Cardiac Children Foundation of Thailand’s Facebook page.