On August 26th 2010 Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) received its first group of children from Jimma, Ethiopia at the Wolfson Medical Center in Israel.
Since SACH was established in 1996, 337 Ethiopian children have been treated in Israel. The five Ethiopian children requiring life-saving heart surgery who arrived in Israel include: Abdulmalik Abdulmejed Mahammed, 8; Newaz Abdulkadir Jebel, 1; Abduraim Awol Ahemed, 13; Sintayehu Jemal Biru, 12; and Tarikua Demise Gebra, 15.
The arrival of the children from Jimma, Ethiopia follows a medical mission to Ethiopia in February 2010, led by Dr Akiva Tamir, Head of the Paediatric Cardiology Unit at the Wolfson Medical Center, and Professor Abraham Haileamlak Mitikean, an Ethiopian physician studying in Israel with SACH since 2009. In Ethiopia, children were examined and after 3 days of the intensive screening of 51 children, they identified 20 children who were found to need life-saving heart surgery. The mission was sponsored by TAG - “Sharing knowledge changing lives”.
Upon arrival in Israel, the group of Ethiopian children received a warm welcome by Professor Abraham Haileamlak Mitikean at the Wolfson Medical Center in Israel. The first of the group, 12 year old Sintayehu Jemal Biru, underwent life saving heart surgery on September 1st. He is presently recovering in the Save a Child's Heart children’s home.