Heart of the Matter

SACH’s Heart of the Matter Project brings together Palestinians and Israelis by providing cardiac care to Palestinian children and outreach training programs for physicians from the Palestinian Authority. Nearly a half of the total children treated by SACH come from the PA, and 1,123 Palestinian children have undergone open-heart surgery since SACH’s founding.

During 2010-2011 the Heart of the Matter project will be co-sponsored by the European Union’s Partnership for Peace Program. This two-year program will continue in the project's aim of bringing together Palestinians and Israelis.

This is the second time the European Union's Partnership for Peace Program have co-sponsored 'Heart of the Matter'. From 2005 - 2008 they were also involved in this project, enabling SACH to achieve wonderful results:

 Over 800 Palestinian children were examined at the cardiology clinic held at the Wolfson Medical Center;

 SACH provided open-heart surgery for over 400 Palestinian children at the Wolfson Medical Center;

 SACH provided in-depth post-graduate training in pediatric cardiac care for six Palestinian physicians in pediatric cardiology, anesthesiology and prenatal diagnosis;

 SACH coordinated joint medical activities between physicians from the PA, Israel and the International medical community. Such activities included a seminar of the Israeli Society of Pediatric Cardiologists, seminar of the Israeli Society of Pediatric Critical Care and Israeli Society of Clinical Pediatrics and the seminar of Congenital and Adult Cardiac Surgery; and

 SACH conducted two surveys assessing:

• the effect of the SACH activities on the attitudes and feelings of Palestinian and Israeli parents of children hospitalized in the Wolfson Medical Center during the program, towards the members of each other's communities;
• and the level of cooperation and communication between Palestinian and Israeli physicians participating in the program.

According to these surveys the relatives of the Palestinian and Israeli children who were treated through the SACH program have changed their positions, for the better, towards Israel and the Palestinian Authority, respectively, and their residents and respective authorities. Furthermore, the absolute majority of the relatives claimed that SACH’s activities strengthen the mutual trust between Israelis and Palestinians and improves the relations between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.