BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Parliament last week hosted an exhibition of photographs of children who are among more than 2,000 children suffering from heart disease whose life have 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.

It 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. 

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.

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.

“We are in weekly contact with the Palestinian Authority to bring children for surgery,” stressed Dr Sion Huri, of the SACH, at the exhibition hosted by Slovakian MEP Miroslav Mikolasik.