President of Rotary International, Mr. Dong-Kurn Lee, visiting the hospital and the children's home
The President of Rotary International, Mr. Dong-Kurn Lee, visited the Israeli humanitarian project Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) on May 7 2009.
Mr. Dong-Kurn Lee was very impressed with SACH and said that the project’s goals resemble the goals of Rotary International – to prevent the mortality of children under the age of five.
Mr. Dong-Kurm Lee arrived at the Wolfson Medical Center accompanied by the president of Rotary Israel and the heads of the Israeli Rotary branches of Holon, Jaffa and Rishon Letsion. Dr. Livia Kapusta, chairperson of SACH Holland and Walter Felman, President of SACH UK were also present in the visit – both active members of Rotary in their countries.
Mr. Dong-Kurm Lee heard detailed explanations about Save a Child’s Heart from SACH Executive Director Simon Fisher and saw a film about the project.
Debbie Cohen, the wife of the late Dr. Ami Cohen, met Mr. Dong-Kurn Lee at the hospital and explained that the idea to found SACH started in Dr. Cohen’s mind over than 20 years ago when he was an American doctor in the US army, serving in South Korea and treating Korean children suffering from heart disease who could not be treated by the local physicians. When Dr. Cohen immigrated to Israel he decided to fulfil his dream and found SACH.
The delegation visited the children’s ward in the Wolfson Medical Center and met there children from Iraq, the Palestinian Authority and various countries from Africa. They also met doctors from Zanzibar and Tanzania who are currently training in the hospital.
After visiting the hospital the delegation arrived at the Save a Child’s Heart children’s home in Azur and met the children, mothers and volunteers who were very excited about the visitors.
Yael Lazarus, president of Rotary Israel who supports SACH, mentioned that this project is one out of two projects presented in Israel to Mr. Dong-Kurn, out of hundreds of projects that Rotary Israel is involved with. Lazaros also said that the project was recently presented and warmly accepted in a peace conference in Turkey and in the annual Rotary conference in the UK.