The Heart of a Child Foundation was formed in 1996 and is being built by the Mendu Family who are determined to turn their heart-breaking experience into an enduring legacy to improve the chances of survival for other infants born with congenital heart defects. In 1996, their young daughter, Samara, who was born with congenital heart defects, passed away. You can learn more about their story in the video on this page.
In response to this situation, the Mendus started The Samara Foundation for Pediatric Cardiology. The foundation had as their goal, the furthering of research and treatment in congenital heart defects.
In the summer of 1997, the name of The Samara Foundation for Pediatric Cardiology was changed to The Heart of a Child Foundation.
The goal is to make the Foundation an open organization with a broad reach and wide perspective that will provide a vehicle for individuals, families and organizations to participate in a combined effort in this endeavor.
The Foundation has been focused on supporting:
Research Grants to find the fundamental causes of CHDs
Endowed Research fellowships
Establishing a coordinated CHD database, to share information, and knowledge amongst researchers
Continuing education for Doctors
Training programs for doctors and medical professionals in developing countries
Medical care for poor children with congenital heart defects in other countries
About The Heart of a Child Foundation
An origin story video of The Heart of a Child Foundation
Why Support The Heart of a Child Foundation?
There is simply no national organization devoted to supporting the study and finding the causes of congenital heart defects.
Most research into cardiovascular disease is focused on “middle-aged” heart disease and perversely, a pediatric research and applications of treatments for pediatric use often lack for sponsors. For example, the American Heart Association, the largest and primary funding organization for research in heart disease allocates less than 35% of its annual research budget toward efforts that include pediatric components. The natural but unfortunate by-product is that it is difficult to attract the best minds into the field of pediatric cardiology when funding is so much more readily available for adult heart diseases. As of 2025, there are over 40,000 board-certified adult cardiologists, but only 4,100 pediatric cardiologists.
Additionally, many doctors who specialize in pediatrics do so because of their desire to work with children. It is more difficult to get this interest correlated with what some consider a less people intensive career in research.
The Heart of a Child Foundation seeks to remedy this situation by staying focused on the study and repair of congenital heart defects, the number one birth defect in newborns. The Foundation will achieve its goals by:
Continuing to build a sizable endowment that will be able to direct meaningful dollars to fund research and clinical fellowships to attract and educate medical professionals.
Coordinating and directly funding basic research efforts focused on the root causes of congenital heart defects, such as molecular genetic research as well as clinical advancements in the surgical and imaging fields
Disseminating information regarding advances and specialized knowledge in the field of pediatric cardiology to the broader medical community and to parents of children born with congenital heart defects.
The Heart of a Child Foundation intends to fill an important gap in the terribly under-funded and under-publicized field of pediatric cardiology. Our mission is critical to the survival of generations of children born with congenital heart defects.