In partnership with Jurkovič Candles, Žale public company is to organise candle sales for charity around 1 November for the eighth consecutive year.

The charity candle sales will take place from 28 October to 2 November 2011 at a charity stall in front of the Church of the Holy Cross in Plečnik’s Žale cemetery. Funds raised will be donated to the Slovenian Heart Foundation for a programme for children with congenital heart defects.

The proceeds from this year’s candle sales will be used for translation, design, preparation for printing, printing and distribution of a booklet entitled Ana’s operation which is intended for children with congenital heart defects and their parents.

In a simplified manner, the booklet outlines the procedures of admission to hospital, preparation for surgery and post-operative monitoring of the child until discharge from hospital. The accompanying ‘Heart Diary’ is a kind of workbook in which the child can ‘monitor’ their situation (colouring a thermometer, how much heat it measures, drawing what he or she dreamed during surgery and so on).

The booklet will enhance the ‘Heartfelt welcome’ package that the parents of newborns with congenital heart defects receive in the maternity unit.

The birth of a child with congenital heart defects mobilises the whole family and in fact all its members need help. The publication of this booklet and supplement is a great step forward in providing help to families of children with congenital heart defects.

In Slovenia, around 200 children are born with congenital heart defects each year, and about half need at least one operation in the first year of life. 95% of them survive to adulthood. It is estimated that about 17,000 people in Slovenia live with congenital heart defects, and around 5 million around Europe.

So far, proceeds from Žale public company’s charity campaigns have benefited the Europa Donna Association for the purchase of a mammotome device, the Sonček Cerebral Palsy Association for the management of secure occupational activity centres in Ljubljana, the Friends of Youth Association for the ‘In Kekec’s footsteps’ project , the Naj bo otrok (‘Let Children Be’) Foundation for the implementation of counselling programmes, the Ljubljana Intergenerational Society for Quality Ageing that used the funds raised to organize an intergenerational meeting of society members, the Safe Journey Institute for the implementation of institute programmes and the Ljubljana Home Care Institute for the purchase of bicycles.