Our Heartfelt Missions Continue
Mission Rwanda 2024
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Save a Child’s Heart was founded to bring life-saving pediatric cardiac care to children in countries around the world like Rwanda where care is very limited. We are proud to return to our mission work – which includes surgeries and and exams – in Rwanda in Spring 2024.
First mission in Rwanda saving lives with our local partners.
Save a Child’s Heart is thrilled to travel to Rwanda and work alongside our partners on the ground at King Faisal Hospital (KFH) in Kigali. The need is great and we are so grateful for our partners at ABBOTT who are helping to sponsor this mission with the Little Heroes Project by providing some of the supplies needed for these life-saving procedures.
The catheterization team will be led by Dr. Sagi Assa from the Israeli medical team alongside partners in Rwanda from King Faisal Hospital in Kigali (KFH). Also on this mission are trainees, Dr. Lise Mumporeze and Dr. Gerard Misago, who have been studying with Save a Child’s Heart in Israel through our trainee program for the last two years and stayed in Israel during the ongoing war. In addition to Dr. Yayu Mekonnen from Ethiopia who was trained by SACH and is now working in Rwanda.
SACH has conducted 3 individual fellowships for Rwandan medical team members, and a new fellow surgeon is scheduled to arrive in 2024. This mission is the first among many other missions to follow in the coming years.
Mission Rwanda 2024 started on an energetic note. Over 40 boxes of supplies arrived successfully and the SACH team had an opening meeting with the CEO of the hospital, Zerihun Abeb. The team managed to complete our setup in various departments at the KFH hospital in Kigali and started reviewing echo examinations of children together with our Rwanda and Ethiopian partners.
On day one of our mission, the team performed 5 life-saving catheterizations on children ranging in age from 1-17 years old. This was all made possible through the wonderful collaboration happening on the ground. We look forward to screening and treating more children as our mission continues. This amazing work is possible because of the cooperation between the Israeli team and the local team at King Faisal Hospital, Kigali.
Our team also had the privilege of recently being a part of Shema’s reunion with her family. Shema was treated in Israel and received a life-saving heart procedure, but traveled with a group of other children from Rwanda, not with a parent. Being there when her family got to see her happy and healthy for the first time was magical.
In 2023, the government of Rwanda signed a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Rwanda Medical Referral Board and Save a Child’s Heart to extend the provision of pediatric cardiac care. Under this partnership, SACH provides lifesaving cardiac care every year to Rwandan children at the Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital and International Pediatric Cardiac Center at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel. To date, we have treated 51 children in Israel and 74 in Rwanda.
Our catheterization mission in Rwanda concluded and thanks to the collaborative efforts of Save a Child's Heart and our dedicated local partners at King Faisal Hospital Rwanda, we've managed to save the lives of 22 Rwandan children.
With innovative approaches that bypass traditional surgery for a quicker recovery, we've not only saved lives but also initiated the establishment of a local catheterization service – a vital step towards sustainable cardiac care in Rwanda.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO SAVE
A CHILD'S HEART