Yayasan Jantung Kongenital Malaysia (YJKM) is a non-profit organisation that provides support to patients born with heart defects in Malaysia.
“Children can get heart problems too?”
Heart defects are the most common birth defects in the world. Patients with heart defects are born with a heart that has an abnormal structure, such as a hole in the heart, malformed valves and other abnormalities.
‘Congenital’ means these defects are present at birth - it is not something acquired later in life. This means that many of our beneficiaries are infants and young children.
Help us shine a light on an invisible disability
Heart defects are the #1 cause of death from birth defects for children under 5 years old, but unlike other birth defects, it is not one that is visible to the naked eye.
With treatment, more than 90% of children can live into adulthood. Timely and appropriate treatment is key in ensuring patients get to grow up to live full and healthy lives.
Every year, an estimated 5,000 babies are born with a heart defect. Of these, 3,000 will need treatment at least once in their lifetime. Patients face numerous challenges in accessing life-saving care: including high costs, long waiting lists, lack of insurance coverage, low awareness among the public and a limited number of care providers.
How YJKM helps:
Overall, we’ve channeled more than RM1,000,000 in donations to help people with congenital heart disease. But we don’t want to stop there — and we need your support!
| Address | VO-247, Common Ground Q Sentral, Unit 39-02 (East Wing), Q Sentral, 2A Jalan Stesen Sentral 2, Kuala Lumpur Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur |
| Phone | +60 16 620 0217 |
| [email protected] | |
| Contact Person | Hanis Hamdan |
| Website | https://www.mycongenitalheart.org |
| Registration No. | PPAB-06/2017 |
| Tax-Exempt LHDN No. | LHDN.01/35/42/51/179.6-8272 |
Funds collected through KLSCM will be directed towards our programs that support patients with congenital heart disease and their families. Treatment costs can range anywhere from RM3,000 to RM200,000. Additionally, the funds will also be used to provide medical equipment for public paediatric heart care providers.
Meet Syazwan, one of the first beneficiaries of YJKM’s Congenital Heart Surgery for All program. When he was born, his parents never imagined something was wrong. But after months of being unwell, doctors discovered a hole in his tiny heart - a ventricular septal defect. Syazwan was often too weak to feed and his parents struggled with job losses and rising medical bills. YJKM stepped in to fund Syazwan’s heart surgery and at just seven months old, he went through a life-saving operation. Today, Syazwan is 7 years old, running, laughing, and growing up healthy, with a future his parents once feared he might not have.
Mariah is one of the contributors featured for our Wira Jantung campaign and she was born with a missing valve and a hole in her heart. Like many adult CHD patients, Mariah has undergone surgery more than once - in fact, Mariah has gone through surgery 5 times, since she was 3 months old. Today, Mariah is 35 years old, working and married with a son. We don’t often hear stories about patients like Mariah and the difficulties of navigating an illness since birth - the days lost at school, the difficulties in finding employment, the frequent ins and outs of hospitals. Our campaign Wira Jantung spotlights stories like hers - shining light on the invisible struggle of the heart warriors among us.
Sometimes, one donation doesn’t help one child, it helps many. Through YJKM, donations go towards vital medical equipment like ECG machines and pacemakers for public paediatric heart care providers across Malaysia. These are equipment healthcare workers use every day, for every child who walks through their doors. One piece of equipment can end up supporting hundreds of young patients over time. When the right equipment is there, diagnoses happen faster, treatments happen sooner, and more children get the care they need, when they need it most.
Zaydan’s case is one that always stands out to us. Not only is he our first patient from West Malaysia, his case was also the one that marked our first engagement with Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur. In 2023, Zaydan flew in from Sandakan, Sabah and with financial assistance from YJKM, underwent surgery at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur to repair the hole in his heart. A year later, his mother shared this photo — happy to report that he is now playing and keeping up with his friends at school. Stories like Zaydan’s remind us that treatment doesn’t just fix a medical condition - it gives children back their childhood. This is the real impact of timely treatment: not just surviving, but truly living.
Help make the world a better place, one heart at a time. ♥
