August  14th - 6:00 AM - Israeli based, humanitarian organization, Save A Child's Heart, welcomes its first group of children from Rwanda to be operated on in Israel at Wolfson Medical Center.

Save A Child's Heart (SACH) welcomes the arrival of its first group of Rwandan children suffering from heart disease to be operated on in Israel at the Wolfson Medical Center.  The five children, who range from just a few months old to 15 years of age, will land in Israel on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007, accompanied by a Rwandan Nurse as well as by two mothers.

The arrival of the children to Israel marks a new phase in the partnership between SACH and the people of Rwanda which began in mid-March 2007, during an inaugural visit to Rwanda, following the organization's annual medical mission to Ethiopia. The 48 hour introduction visit to Rwanda included meetings with various officials and medical personnel who strive for the development of an improved healthcare system.

The SACH medical team visited the King Faisel Hospital in Kigali and met with Dr. Joseph Mucumbitsi, the Head of Pediatric Cardiology unit.  Dr. Mucumbitsi had previously contacted Save A Child's Heart to request assistance from the organization in order to help rehabilitate and develop the Rwandan medical infrastructure as well as help to treat complex pediatric cardiac cases among the nation's children.

During the visit to Rwanda, Dr. Tamir, Head of the Pediatric Cardiology Department at Wolfson Medical Center together with Dr. Mucumbitsi, conducted a screening clinic for over a dozen children who suffer from heart disease requiring treatment. 
 
The operations for the Rwandan children will be carried out by SACH as part of its longstanding humanitarian activities that has brought over 1700 children from 27 countries around the world to Israel over the last 12 years for heart surgery.

Save A Child's Heart provides life-saving heart surgeries for children from developing countries in Israel. 

Since 1996 children have come to SACH from countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zanzibar, Moldova, Vietnam and China while close to half of the total number of children treated at SACH are Palestinian or from Arab countries including Jordan and Iraq.  Follow up care and capacity building are also an integral part of SACH's core mission and activities.