One of every 100 children born in the developing world will never see his or her first birthday because of congenital heart disease, according to the International Children's Heart Foundation. Many children in developing nations who have congenital heart disease are never diagnosed, the foundation says, and never undergo life-saving surgery.

However, you can give the gift of life and help provide critical heart surgery for some of those children. Your relatively small gesture can make a very big difference.

Each year, the HeartGift Foundation brings children from around the world to Texas for free surgery to correct life-threatening heart defects. They come to Texas for these operations because their home countries lack adequate health care. They leave Texas with repaired hearts - and a new sense of hope for the future.