Save A Child’s Heart sponsors surgery for two children
Two children, Jormi Agbashie, three years from Nungua in Accra and Yaa Gyeduwaa, two years from Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, have benefited from life-saving heart surgeries by Save A Child’s Heart at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, Israel.
The two toddlers were born with congenital heart diseases but their parents were unable to raise half of their surgery requirements so they could not be treated in Ghana.
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The Ghana office of Save A Child’s Heart, which is the Ghanaian branch of Save A Child’s Heart, an international non-profit organisation, came to their rescue and sent them to Israel where they underwent successful surgeries and had since returned home.
In an interview, the Director, Save A Child’s Heart, Ghana, Mr Tal Laufer, said the two were part of 33 other children between ages zero to 17 who had received free heart surgeries since the NGO started operating in Ghana in 2008.
An international organisation, Save A Child’s Heart was founded in 1995 at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, Israel, and currently children from across the globe are treated by this charitable organisation.
To date, it had saved the lives of more than 5,000 children from 59 countries in Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, and throughout the Middle East and trained more than 120 medical team members from these countries.
Children and their chaperons, who make it to the facility, are housed free of charge at the Legacy Heritage Children’s Home of Save A Child’s Heart, also located in Holon, just a few minutes from the hospital.
Improving health
According to Mr Laufer, the mission of Save a Child’s Heart, was to improve the quality of paediatric cardiac care for children in developing countries and creating centres of competence in these countries.
He said the goal of the NGO was to improve the health and welfare of all children, regardless of the child's religion, gender or nationality.
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He added that the organisation offered a comprehensive training programme within Israel for doctors and nurses from developing countries and led surgical and teaching missions to partner countries, indicating that so far 120 medical personnel had been trained.
In Africa, apart from Ghana, he mentioned Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Ethiopia, Zambia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda as some of the countries the NGO had presence.
He said what was remarkable about the Save A Child’s Heart was that all the doctors and nurses who worked with the NGO at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Israel, were volunteers who were not paid for the work they did.
Mr Laufer said the NGO only thrived on donations made by philanthropists in the various countries where they operated saying in Ghana, their work had been made possible through the generous contributions of some banks, organisations and benevolent individuals.
Currently, he added that the NGO was building its own children’s hospital known as the International Paediatric Cardiac Centre in Holon, Israel.
He said when completed, the facility would be a worldwide centre of competence in paediatric cardiac care with international recognition in paediatric cardiac treatment, training and research.
Grateful hearts
In separate interviews with the mothers of the two beneficiaries, they both expressed gratitude to Save A Child’s Heart for saving their children from cardiovascular diseases.
According to Ms Bettine Dugbatey, mother of Little Jormi, since she returned from Israel, her growth was now normal, as she was currently able to eat, sleep well and play with other children.
Ms Ernestina Incoom, mother of Little Yaa, when interviewed on phone, was also full of excitement, as she said her daughter was now hale and hearty.
She thanked the donors, Save A Child’s Heart, for helping to save her daughter’s life.