Seada is the epitome of a beautiful, vivacious and joyous young lady. Meeting her 3 years after her surgery at Save a Child's Heart, Sheila explains how different the 12 year old girl is from the timid, introverted 9 year old who we first met in 2007.
Due to ill health and breathing problems, Seada was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease at the age of 20 days yet she received no treatment for it. Luckily Sandi, World Families Australia were involved with educational projects together with the Daughters of Charity in the Jimma area and they brought Seada to our attention. Quickly the decision was made to bring her to Israel. Between July and September 2007, she underwent life saving treatment and she made a quick recovery before she happily returned back to Ethiopia.
Three years later, Seada is firmly entrenched in school. She loves dancing and has a constant radiant smile on her face. Studying hard, Seada is first in her class and her mother and step father glow with pride at her success.
There are no more signs of the underweight child who came to Save a Child's Heart in 2007. Seada now has a healthy appetite for life as well as food and she is thankfully growing well.
Seada’s village used to be isolated, causing many problems for a sick child needing to make frequent visits to a hospital. Due to a women’s empowerment programme, where the women make and sell goods to cities further afield, the village is no longer isolated. Saeda’s visits to the hospital are more frequent and Seada is being followed up by Dr. Abraham Haileamlak Mitikec who was trained on a cardiology training program in the Wolfson Medical Center through Save a Child's Heart. Prof. Abraham completed his training at the end of August 2010 and has returned back to his hospital in Jimma.
Seada like many Save a Child's Heart children, dreams of becoming a paediatrician one day and help others like she has been helped. With Jimma University now so accessible, and with her strong determination and outstanding grades in school, we are sure that Seada will hit the bench mark when the time comes to take the exams to attend Medical School.