Volunteer heart specialists have been helping to raise awareness in Fiji about rheumatic heart disease.
Photo: Andrey Popov 123RF
Listen to more on Dateline Pacific
It's estimated about 60 children die from the disease every year in Fiji.
Specialists working with the New Zealand based Friends of Fiji Heart Foundation operated on two dozen adult patients this year.
The charity has visited the country every year since 2006 and a member of the team Shane Lal said her role this year was to educate people about the sometimes fatal disease.
"So reaching out to them, saying if they had sore throat or ongoing sore throat which was recurrent, going to the doctor which people can't afford probably in the internal areas which takes several buses or boats to the areas, showing them about hygiene"