Jade with Joffrey and Godfrey (both Tanzania) at the SACH Children’s home this year. Credit: Sheila Shalhevet (Save A Child’s Heart)

By JADE LEWIN

The children from Africa arrive in groups. Those up to the age of 5 arrive with their mothers. Those older than 5 are considered, owing to funding constraints, to be old enough to travel alone. They arrive with other children, accompanied by a nurse.

The children, nurses and mothers arrive weary, exhausted physically and mentally from 48-hours of travel. The children who are most unwell are taken straight to the hospital. The rest are taken from the airport to the Save A Child’s Heart children’s home in Holon, Tel Aviv, where they are encouraged to sleep for a few hours. In the morning, they are driven to the nearby Wolfson Medical Centre for a day of medical tests and cardiology screenings.

One cannot imagine what it must feel like, to arrive in a country so foreign to you that you have likely never even heard of it. To be leaving your village for the very first time to travel abroad to a strange country. To be five or six years old, in Israel without your mother or your father, and about to undergo a life-saving heart operation.

For most of the 250 plus children helped by Save A Child’s Heart each year, this is the only chance that they have at life.

There are millions of children around the globe suffering from rheumatic and congenital heart disease. At any given moment, thousands of children die due to a lack of adequate health care, clean drinking water, and access to medication.

Despite not understanding one another, the children at Save A Child’s Heart quickly become best friends. Credit: Sheila Shalhevet (Save A Child’s Heart)

In Tanzania, there are something like 300,000 – 400,00 children with heart ailments who need surgery. However, there are only two hospitals in the county where heart surgery is performed, and only one paediatric cardiac surgeon (who just happens to have been trained by Save A Child’s Heart as well).

In Ethiopia, it is a similar story. There are more than 90,000,000 people living in Ethiopia, and no paediatric cardiac surgeon.

It’s not just children from outside the region either. More than 50% of children helped by Save A Child’s Heart come from the Middle East – from countries such as the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Syria, and the West Bank.

The idea of Save A Child’s Heart was born in 1995, when the late Dr Amram Cohen, a cardiac surgeon who had emigrated from America to Israel just three years beforehand, was approached by an Ethiopian doctor for help with two children in desperate need of heart surgery. Dr Ami Cohen and his staff at Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, Tel Aviv, agreed to operate on these children without pay, but with the approval of the hospital administration. Since that time, despite his untimely death in 2001, Ami’s vision has grown to encompass more than 3,400 children from 48 countries. Most are brought to Israel for surgery and housed in the Save A Child’s Heart home near the hospital.

Back at the children’s home, volunteers and visitors help to lighten the mood. For the child just arrived, there are a million strange faces, machines, and things that are scary to him. He doesn’t understand the language, and he doesn’t like the food. These children are often frightened, unsure of what is going on and when it will be “their turn” to have surgery and go home. They see other children coming and going, yet they are still around.

Fast forward a few days, or a week into their stay in Israel, and it is hard to believe you are dealing with the same child. They are the first to pull on your sleeve in the morning, requesting to watch ‘Simba’ (aka The Lion King) – an all-time favourite at the children’s home. They trail behind you as you walk around the house, ready to plonk themselves down on your lap the minute that you sit down. They motion to you, inviting you to come and sit next to them and share in their meal of ugali (semolina) and beans.

And the children that have already been operated on and are undergoing recovery to go home? Well, it’s hard to find them, because they’re running about somewhere, kicking a ball around.

Save A Child’s Heart: giving children the chance at life. Credit: Sheila Shalhevet (Save A Child’s Heart)

It is a family at Save A Child’s Heart. For despite the limitations of language, we learn to understand one another. Regardless of what language you speak, a hug is a hug, and a smile, a smile. The mothers of the children (or mamas as they are known around the house) are warm and embracing, and, despite being young, they take you under their wing and treat you as one of their own.

Laughter and noise permeate the house. At any given moment, a dance party can erupt in the living room of the house. Children, mamas and volunteers alike will join in to the Macarena, ‘Jambo’, or Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’, pushing one another to join in the fun. It is a sight that is hard to imagine, women and children from all corners of the globe – Tanzania, Ethiopia, China, Russia, Romania, Ghana, Haiti, Moldova – all dancing and laughing together under the one roof.

By mending hearts regardless of race, nationality or financial status, Save A Child’s Heart is contributing to a better, more peaceful and productive life for children from around the world. Without the dedicated work of the doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers who give of their time and services, and put their heart into saving lives every day, most of these children would be lucky to see out their next birthday.

The 3,400 children operated on by Save A Child’s Heart thus far are living testament to this.

Save A Child’s Heart in 5 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIRVTZgRMIg

To read about some of the children that Save A Child’s Heart has helped, or for more information about the organisation and their mission click here. 

Dr Yayu Mekonnen is an Ethiopian doctor, currently completing a five-year training with Save A Child’s Heart in Israel. When he completes his training, he will return to Ethiopia, where he will become the first paediatric heart surgeon for more than 90,000,000 people. Yayu will be visiting Australia in November. If you would like more information about his visit, please contact pr@saveachildsheart.org

The cost of bringing each child to Israel for lifesaving surgery is $10,000 USD. Save A Child’s Heart is dependent on the generosity of their sponsors and supporters worldwide to continue saving the lives of more children from developing countries who are suffering from heart disease. To donate, please visit here.