Jayanti Memorial Trust marks 25 years of advancing cardiac healthcare in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Jayanti Memorial Trust (JMT) is marking 25 years of service in advancing cardiac healthcare across Nepal. The milestone highlights the organisation's sustained commitment to assisting patients facing financial and geographical barriers to diagnosis and treatment.

According to JMT’s anniversary programme records, the non-profit organisation has sponsored more than 10,000 cardiac surgeries through partnerships with Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre (SGNHC) and Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center (MCVTC). This support has encompassed essential surgical hardware, prosthetic valves, and emergency treatment assistance, alongside the supply of 612 vials of Streptokinase for the treatment of acute heart attacks.

For the next 25 years, JMT aims to strengthen prevention, expand community screening and basic life-support training, deepen hospital partnerships, and improve access to diagnostics outside major urban centres so that financial circumstances or place of residence do not determine whether a person receives essential cardiac care.

Delivering cardiac services to underserved communities has remained central to JMT's operations. Since 2007, JMT has organised heart camps in remote and geographically challenging districts, including Mugu, Achham, Dadeldhura, Jajarkot, Salyan, Gorkha, Mustang, Siraha, and Manang. Programme records indicate an average of four camps annually from 2007 to 2014, increasing to an average of eight annually from 2015 to 2026, complemented by continuing medical education, nursing conferences, and community-level training.

Beyond direct patient assistance, JMT has invested in hospital capacity by providing ambulatory blood pressure and Holter monitoring equipment, bedside monitors, electrodes, wheelchairs, and other medical supplies. To strengthen access to specialist services outside Kathmandu, JMT also funded a cardiologist for four years and a surgeon for one year at Western Regional Hospital in Pokhara.

Since 2025, JMT has conducted nine sessions of CPR and basic life-support training for local health workers and community members. Its prevention and awareness initiatives, including Go Red for Women, World Heart Day activities, and community education programmes, have also reached more than 6,000 students across up to 40 government schools.

During periods of national crisis, JMT extended its operations beyond cardiac care. Following the 2015 earthquake, it provided relief assistance and established a mental-health support helpline. During the Covid19 pandemic, JMT supported isolation facilities, helped establish an industrial oxygen plant at Bheri Hospital in Nepalgunj, and supplied equipment to health facilities including Western Regional Hospital in Pokhara. It also supported cost-free psychosocial counselling, including a suicide-prevention counselling programme in September 2020, and more recently contributed to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund for flood victims.

Established in August 2001 by the late Princess Helen Shah in memory of the late Princess Jayanti Shah, the organisation was founded to connect people in need with specialist medical care. A distinctive feature of its model has been the dedication of the net profits of Fishtail Lodge in Pokhara to JMT, creating a continuing source of support for its healthcare programmes.

These initiatives have been carried out in collaboration with hospitals, medical professionals, donors, volunteers, and institutional partners, including the Cardiac Society of Nepal, the Nick Simons Institute, the University of Washington, the Denver Group, the Children Cardiac Care Foundation, Zonta Club of Kathmandu, and Every Heartbeat Matters.