Our Mission

Our mission is to serve the people of South East Asia through:

• Training healthcare professionals in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of heart disease

• Improving access to high-quality heart healthcare

• Researching the epidemiology of heart disease, the effectiveness of our interventions, and other topics of critical value to rural Asian populations.

What We Have Done

Pediatric Heart Care and Screenings

In the United States and other Western countries, all newborns are screened for congenital heart defects at birth and during their first year of life. Infants who are found to have a congenital heart defect then undergo surgery, allowing the child to lead a normal, healthy life. Unfortunately, in many areas of southeast Asia, the capacity to screen all newborns for congenital heart disease is lacking, and treatment for those who are detected is frequently unavailable. If left untreated, children suffering from congenital heart defects may die before they reach adulthood. With the support of our donors, the China Cal has screened thousands of children in rural villages in Yunnan Province, China. We have also trained hundreds of Yunnan county obstetricians how to properly screen the hearts of newborn babies. Our screenings give children who were previously undiagnosed the chance for curative treatment and a healthy life.

The families of these children with heart disease are very poor. Incomes range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per year. Once we find a child with a treatable heart defect, we discuss the diagnosis with their family and offer the opportunity to apply for financial assistance either from our own funds, from government plans, or from private foundations and other charities with which we work. In no circumstance where we have discovered a treatable heart defect has the child not received appropriate surgical intervention because of a lack of funds.

Hypertension Research

30 years ago, high blood pressure was rare in rural China, and the prevalence of strokes and heart attacks was much lower than it is in the West. However, under China’s rapid urbanization, the prevalence of high blood pressure and heart disease have quickly risen. Today, heart disease is the leading cause of death in China. While the majority of China’s economic growth has occurred in the country’s urban centers, the countryside has been relatively neglected. Many of the risk factors for hypertension and cardiovascular disease, such as smoking and a high sodium diet, are just as common in rural areas as they are in urban areas. The China California Heart Watch worked to document this growing epidemic by bringing international teams of researchers to conduct hypertension and cardiovascular disease surveys in Yunnan. We have published five scientific reports in the medical literature regarding high blood pressure in China.

Training Village Doctors

The training and continued education of village doctors was a core part of the China California Heart Watch’s mission in Yunnan. Half of China’s population–a group approximately twice the size of the population of the United States–still lives in rural villages. Though the number of village doctors working in rural Yunnan is stable, they remain poorly trained in the care of chronic diseases like hypertension and heart disease. In addition, many are also unaware of how to screen children for congenital heart defects. The China California Heart Watch hosted semi-annual training seminars for village doctors to improve their ability to manage chronic conditions such as hypertension and to hone their pediatric examination skills. After attending one of our training programs, the village doctors returned to their villages better equipped to serve their communities.

What We Will Do

Yunnan Children’s Heart Project.

China Cal has made an agreement with its partner hospital, Yunnan Province Fu Wai Cardiovascular Hospital. This contractual agreement will provide for periodic grants from China Cal and provision of volunteers to that hospital in order to diagnose, refer and treat poor rural Yunnan Province children with heart disease.  Fu Wai will use local health care personnel to perform mission trips to poor rural areas where children will be screened and when needed treated appropriately using grants from China Cal and other foundations.

Burma refugee Children’s Heart Project

For fifty years the government of Myanmar has oppressed its minority citizens, stealing their land, burning their villages, driving them to the borders and out of their homeland.  The government denies them education and healthcare.  Those that manage to escape to the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand find help at the Mae Tao Clinic, founded by Dr. Cynthia Maung in 1989.  These refugees live in camps and hidden in the hills of eastern Thailand. Their children attend schools run by NGOs and they seek health care at the Mae Tao clinic.

The China California Heart Watch has now partnered with the Mae Tao Clinic, Burma Children’s Medical Fund and with Help Without Frontiers to find and treat children with heart disease.

Due to the primitive conditions imposed on Burmese farmers and refugees, heart disease is much more prevalent among their children.  

 In 2020, China Cal will screen the hearts of ten thousand Burmese refugee school children and find support for surgical cures for all those found with heart disease.

 We need your help now. Please donate to the China California Heart Watch.