Save a Child's Heart diagnoses, treats and operates on children with life-threatening heart diseases from developing countries, free of charge.
One-year-old Fatma is crying in her hospital bed, and for good reason – she’s hungry. She hasn’t eaten since the evening before, in preparation for the open-heart surgery she’s going to be wheeled into any minute.
Her mother, Balkis, is trying to soothe her. Nineteen years ago, she herself was in a similar position, waiting at the very same hospital — Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel — for lifesaving surgery to repair a heart condition called patent ductus arteriosus.
But neither 26-year-old Balkis Makame Haji nor her daughter Fatma are Israeli. They traveled all the way from Zanzibar for the free surgery with the help of the Save a Child’s Heart non-profit organization.
Fatma, her mom says, seemed fine at birth, even weighing a hefty seven pounds. “But when she was three months old, she started to have frequent fevers, coughs and pneumonia. We went to the hospital.”
An echocardiogram revealed that the three-month-old suffered from the same condition her mom did as a child. “A lot of children have this problem,” Haji explains. “It’s dangerous because they don’t grow properly.”
Save a Child’s Heart was on one of its overseas missions at the Zanzibar hospital at the time, screening some 400 local kids for heart problems. Upon examining Fatma and realizing that her mother was a previous patient of theirs, SACH doctors decided to fly her over to Israel for surgery. She is the 5,000th child to be treated through the organization.
Israel at its best
The organization’s main offices are also located at the house. Here, British-born Executive Director Simon Fisher explains the heart of SACH’s mission.
“I believe Save a Child’s Heart represents Israel at its best,” he says. “At the core of the activities are universal values that are at least part of my DNA as a Jew, as an Israeli and as someone who immigrated from the UK to Israel and feels the need to showcase who we are.”
“If there’s a child we can help, then we’ll help,” he says of the different populations that the apolitical organization treats, noting that nationality does not make a difference. This is particularly true in the case of Palestinian kids, who have a special weekly clinic at SACH.
“It makes sense to help your neighbors,” he says. “We believe there’s a very strong element of trust-building between Israelis and Palestinians and that’s through health.”
“Even at the worst of times children have been coming across for treatment,” he adds.
The aid to children from around the world is never at the expense of local Israeli kids, Fisher notes. In fact, a new children’s medical center being built at Wolfson through the efforts of SACH will treat all pediatric patients from the greater Holon area.
Sponsored by donors Sylvan Adams, Morris Kahn, the Azrieli Foundation and the Ted Arison Family Foundation, the children’s hospital is set to treat some 700 SACH patients a year. And with the cost of flying over and treating each child standing at $15,000, the initiative requires around $10 million.
While the organization is non-governmental, it does receive support from the Israeli Ministry for Regional Cooperation and at times the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the European Union and other private donors. Fatma’s operation, for example, was sponsored by Canadian donors.
“As a member of the international community, Israel is giving to humanity, per se, and in many cases leading and leading by example,” Fisher says of SACH. “It’s very much based on the values of tikkun olam,” he adds, concluding that “children are our future.”
That’s certainly the case for Fatma.
“I’ll make sure to take good care of my child,” Haji says. “I want her to be a doctor – a heart specialist. That was my dream and I didn’t get the chance to go. I want to make sure she goes.”