On his recent family vacation to Jammu and Kashmir, pictures and videos of which went viral across social media platforms, cricketing stalwart Sachin Tendulkar visited the Inga Health Foundation in Srinagar.

Taking time out of his family vacation, the legend, nicknamed the ‘Master Blaster’, met surgeons and a few young children, who had benefited from financial support from his foundation for their cleft lip and palate surgeries. Sachin was accompanied by his wife Anjali Tendulkar and daughter Sara during his visit to the foundation.

He also met Mohammad Shakeel Sheikh, another patient who benefitted from his foundation, and other young patients, including those who have already undergone successful surgeries sponsored by the Sachin Tendulkar Foundation as well as those awaiting their procedures.

The Sachin Tendulkar Foundation was created to give children equal access to health, education and sports and to create a better world for them. Among its many initiatives, the foundation provides crucial support to the Inga Health Foundation to treat children with facial deformities suchas cleft lip and palate.

This is part of the foundation’s ongoing efforts to provide support for surgeries across Inga Health Foundation’s three centres in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Srinagar, ensuring that the children suffering from these conditions receive the necessary medical attention and care to lead normal, healthy lives.

In Srinagar, the Inga Health Foundation has a centre situated at the New City Hospital with an exclusive ward and a dedicated Operation Theatre. The centre also provides orthodontics and speech therapy to patients as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.

Cleft lip and palate are among the most common birth defects that occur when the two sides of the lip do not completely fuse in the womb.