'Save a Child’s Heart' exhibition at the European Parliament

Between November 9 to November 13, 2009, a unique photography Exhibition was displayed in the EU Parliament building in Brussels.
The photographs were mainly of children who are among more than 2,000 children suffering from heart disease whose life has been saved by the ‘Save a Child’s Heart’ organization (SACH), an Israeli-based international humanitarian project.
The mission of SACH is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from congenital and rheumatic heart disease and to create centers of competence in 36 countries where adequate medical care is unavailable.
The ultimate goal of Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is to create centers of competence in developing countries where children can be treated independently in their own communities. SACH trains medical personnel from partner sites in Israel at the Wolfson Medical Center for in-depth post-graduate training in all facets of pediatric cardiac care including cardiology, surgery, anesthesia, intensive care, perfusion and nursing.
Since its inception in 1995, SACH has trained 50 physicians and nurses at the Wolfson Medical Center from China, Ethiopia, Moldova, Nigeria, the Palestinian Authority, Eritrea, Kenya, Russia, Vietnam and Zanzibar.
This initiative is dedicated to the idea that “every child deserves the best medical treatment available, regardless of the child's nationality, religion, color, gender or financial situation”, explained Dr Sion Huri, of the SACH, to the MEPs.
The organization, which is supported by the European Commission, is based in the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, near Tel Aviv, where most of the children are brought for surgery while others are operated in their home countries by the Israeli medical team together with local medical personnel.  This humanitarian effort was founded by Dr. Ami Cohen in 1995, when he agreed to bring two Ethiopian children home to Israel to be operated upon by the staff, without pay, but with the approval of the hospital administration.
Since 1995, 40% of the children who underwent cardiac surgery are from Africa (Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Nigeria, Congo, Rwanda…); 49% from the Palestinian Authority, Jordan & Iraq; 4% from Moldova, Russia and former USSR and 7% from China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Presently more than 1,000 children on SACH’s waiting list are waiting for life-saving surgery.
“We are in weekly contact with the Palestinian Authority to bring children for surgery,” said Dr Sion Huri, at the seminar “Saving a child’s life is like saving the World”, hosted by Slovakian MEP Miroslav Mikolasik last week.

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