Saving Lives and Giving Hope

Saving Children's Hearts

Recently I reviewed a book that talked about a non-profit organization called Save a Child's Heart http://www.saveachildsheart.org/. I thought the book (Sabrina: The Girl with a Hole in her Heart http://www.amazon.com/SABRINA-GIRL-WITH-HOLE-HEART/dp/0615478190/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365918364&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=sabrina+girl+with+broken+heart was very interesting and a concept I had heard of before and I was curious what other organizations there are available to help children with congenital heart defects.  There's an excellent Q & A about Save A Child's Heart here:  http://www.saveachildsheart.org/366-en/QuestionsAndAnswers.aspx  This page discussed answers to questions regarding donations, how to get a child help, how people can volunteer and what opportunities there are for medical students.  Save a Child's Heart is based in Israel.

The International Children's Heart Foundation http://babyheart.org/ is an organization with a mission identical to Save A Child's Heart. Both organizations believe in the sanctity of human life. Both feel that children, regardless of whether or not their parents can afford surgery, deserve a chance for life. Both organizations take care of children who otherwise would be overlooked, forgotten or simply neglected by their local medical community because their own neighborhood doesn't have the resources needed to care for a child with a congenital heart defect or because their parents can't afford the costly surgery necessary for the child to survive.

The ICHF has performed over 6000 surgeries since it began in 1993. While they know they can't save every child with a heart defect, they are doing what they can to save as many children as they can with the resources they have.

The last organization I will briefly discuss is the Take Heart Association Project http://www.thapkenya.org/.

This organization helps children in Keyna who were born with congenital heart defects. Thanks to the Take Heart Association Project 120 children have been able to return home to live healthy lives. They take care of the poorest children in their country and they do it because:

More than 10,000 babies are born in Kenya with a congenital heart defect each year. However, at this time, there is no dedicated congenital heart program in all of Africa. Lacking the access to modern medical care, many of these children die needlessly in their early childhood years.

Since 1992, THAP has sponsored 120 children to undergo heart surgery many from the poorest areas surrounding Nairobi, Kenya - to undergo successful heart surgery in Kenya, India, Italy and the United States.

THAP also assists the children by providing pre- & post-op diagnosis, medicine, accomodations and transportation for the children who travel to Nairobi from remote areas for medical treatment.


I find it touching that it was so easy for me to find three outstanding organizations with the same mission:  Saving Children Born with Broken Hearts. All of these organization cater to families who cannot afford the expensive treatments needed to save children with complex congenital heart defects.  All of these organizations seem blind to race, religion or political beliefs. Their sole concern is saving children who would otherwise be lost.

If you, or someone you know, would like to get involved in helping one of these organizations, please check out their websites. There are many opportunities to serve these organizations. While financial donations are always needed and appreciated, I found it refreshing that they also had other ways people could be part of the healing process.