Thirteen young people from the Tibet autonomous region are ready to go home after they received free surgery to treat congenital heart disease at Beijing's Air Force General Hospital.

The people, aged from 4 to 19, are among the youngsters helped by a program launched by the China Charity Federation in 2011 to support children with congenital heart disease from financially challenged families of ethnic groups in places including the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Tibet and Guizhou province.

"We have received 36 patients with congenital heart disease from Tibet since May 20," said Xu Aisu, media officer of the Air Force General Hospital, one of the six hospitals in Beijing and Guangzhou cooperating with the China Charity Federation.