Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
15 August 2007
Kigali — An Israeli organization - Save A Child's Heart (SACH) has received five Rwandan children suffering from heart disease to be operated on in Israel at the Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv, the Israel News Agency has reported.
The first group of the several children, who range from just a few months old to 15 years of age, landed yesterday in Tel Aviv - Israel's largest city - accompanied by a Rwandan nurse as well and two mothers.
The arrival of the children marks a new phase in the partnership between the organization and Rwanda which began in mid-March 2007, during an inaugural visit to the country, following the organization's annual medical mission to Ethiopia.
The 48 hour introduction visit to Rwanda included meetings with various officials and medical personnel.
The medical team visited King Faisel Hospital in Kigali where Dr. Joseph Mucumbitsi - the Head of Pediatric Cardiology unit sought cooperation with the organization.
Dr. Mucumbitsi suggested support to rehabilitate and develop the some medical infrastructure as well as help to treat complex pediatric cardiac cases.
The Israeli team conducted a screening clinic for over a dozen children who suffer from heart disease requiring treatment.
The operations for the Rwandan children will be carried out by SACH as part of its long-standing humanitarian activities that has brought over 1700 children from 27 countries around the world to Israel over the last 12 years for heart surgery.
"Rwanda represents the 28th country partnering with Save A Child's Heart," Simon Fisher, executive director of SACH told the Israel News Agency.
"Over 30 percent of the children being treated by us come from Africa. But whether it's the refugees of Sudan, the poor from Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia or any other nation worldwide we are here and ready to save lives. Every child deserves the best humanitarian medical treatment and we have both the medical professionals and facilities to get that job done."
Save A Child's Heart came into being in 1995 when Dr. Ami Cohen was contacted by an Ethiopian doctor referred to him by a mutual friend at the University of Massachusetts.
He is said to have asked for Dr. Cohen's help with two children in desperate need of heart surgery. He however died in August 2001.
From this beginning, the SACH medical team of highly skilled doctors, nurses and paramedics, has now grown to over 70 members in Israel, and has operated on hundreds of children.
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